Rise of the Forgotten
by CatKkit
Summary: The five guardians are not the only ones around. There are others who are hoping to one day be chosen to be an official guardian. Waiting to become visible. To be believed in. This is their story, about how they guarded the children against Pitch and his new allies.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! CatKkit here! This is my new OC story! I just saw Rise of the Guardians, and it was amazing. I was struck with inspiration for a story, and I need OC's for it.**

**There are some rules, though. You cannot be related to any of the characters in the movie in any way, shape, or form. **

**You also cannot chose which holiday your character represents. Let me explain that:**

**I am fearful that I will get like six spirits of Halloween or something like that, so...**

**You will submit your OC using the form below, but they will look like a normal human (i.e., no ice blue hair and eyes). Once I have excepted him/her/it, I will choose a holiday/event/thing for the OC to represent.**

**I will ask the creator about the holiday that I have selected for the character to represent. Then you can make some MINOR adjustments of necessary. You can also give me a back story as to how your OC became an "immortal person" like Jack was before becoming a guardian. **

**I would also like some more ideas for holidays.**

**There can't be Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, Jack Frost, Sandman, or Boogeyman.**

**Those characters will be in the story(probably), but I don't want any copy-cats.**

**You could submit a holiday character/idea that has to do with them, though (Like submitting Mrs. Clause).**

**But just because you submitted the holiday doesn't necessarily mean that your character will represent it. **

**I currently have eleven and a half "good" holidays (I'm not sure about one of them) and I have one "bad holiday" for a villain.**

**Please send in more holidays and holiday characters ideas. They may not be used, but they would be appreciated. IMMENSELY!**

**I'm not going to tell any of you what the current holidays are, because that will make your OC form biased (Ex: if I mention the holiday, you will specifically match your characters personality with that holiday, which would seriously annoying).**

**DO NOT SPECIFY YOUR HOLIDAY! I will select one for you**

**Also, no specifying relationships. If you want a relationship, then just say yes or no. If you specify any relationship with any of the current characters, then your OC will not be used. And that means any relationship. Even mysterious one time meetings or dreams.**

**I have already recieved the following holidays: St Patricks Day, the spirit of Autumn, the spirit of music, and the son of Mother Goose.**

**I will suggest some holidays now!:**

**Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Groundhog, Halloween, April Fools, etc.**

**And only 1 OC per person.**

**Heres the form:**

**Name: (and nickname, if you want)**

**Age: (between 10-20. If you want to submit an adult, then please PM me so we can discuss it)**

**Gender:**

**Sexuality: **

**Appearance: (hair, eyes, skin, freckles, acne, etc)**

**Clothing: **

**Personality: (be creative! Be wacky and strange! I don't want to end up with a bunch of lovable loners with mysterious pasts or special bad asses. The more different, the more I'll love it)**

**Favorite Past time: (at least 5, please don't pick boring stuff like reading or writing. I'll just assume that everyone does that. Pick something more exciting.**

**History: (nothing too long. Include family life. Don't make your OC have amnesia from their past life, because that is over used and boring)**

**Likes: (foods, colors, etc)**

**Dislikes: (food, colors, etc)**

**Weaknesses: (at least 3. Every good OC has them, it makes for a more enjoyable character to write about. Being too caring or being over protective of friends ARE two useable weaknesses, but they are overused and not very fun to write about, so try to avoid it. Like the favorite past times, I will assume that everyone is like that. Unless they aren't, then please specify)**

**Relationship: (yes or no, and specify what type. Note: IF YOU SAY JACK FROST, THEN I WILL NOT USE YOUR CHARACTER)**

**Extra: (pets, etc)**

**...**

**AND YOU CAN ALWAYS GET IDEAS FROM WEBSITE! **

**After your character is accepted, then you can make adjustments to clothing, fears, likes, dislikes, etc. You will be required to add a history or to add on to it at least.**

**I know that this seems like a lot of restrictions, but I'm just being cautious. **

**The first chapter will not be up for a while, though.**

**UPDATE! I need some guys! Seriously! I already have 4 girls! Someone go out on a limb and submit a dude OC! Please.**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit.**


	2. New Form Rules! Important!

**THIS IS AN UPDATE:**

**I have noticed that I am receiving ridiculously obscure holidays, or spirits of nature. That is okay, but I do need OC's for specific holidays, so I thought that I would just completely forget about the rule of not selecting your own holiday.**

**I am going to give you a list of holidays that I need.**

**If there is 2 OCs for one holiday, then I will either A) Pick one B) combine them or C) not use them.**

**It will probably be B) and I will check with the creators on that.**

**If I receive like 6 or 7, then we will have some issues.**

**Use the same form as last time, but add holiday, history, etc, as you see fit.**

***And if you already submitted an OC, then you have 1st dibs on holidays if you want to change your current one.**

**And if you are a GUEST submitting, then any info not included in the first (few) forms will be made up by me, because I can't be sure if it is you or not.**

**Sorry.**

**I already have St Patrick's Day, Water Spirt/Sprit of Summer, Son of Mother Goose, Spirit of Spring/Music Spirit, Fire Spirit/Spirit of Autumn, Birthday, and MAYBE Valentine's Day. That specific creator hasn't gotton back to me yet. Assume that Valentine's Day is on hold.**

***And I need more guys.**

**Here is the list of holidays I need:**

**Independence Day/4th of July.**

**New Years (is going to be a baby boy, but he needs personality)**

**Thanksgiving (Preferably a giagantic talking turkey, but it's your choice)**

**Groundhog Day (the enemy of Bunnymund!)**

**Halloween (2 OCs, one for Trick(male) one for Treat (female), not sent by the same person)**

**April Fools**

**Mardi Gras**

**Memorial Day.**

**And any others you can think of. Please make sure that it is an actual holiday.**

**And villains. I already have 3 in mind, but I could use a few more. Make sure that they are holidays as well.**

**And I also will accept variations, like Mrs. Clause or the Hammaspeikko (it's a tooth troll).**

**And...NO MORE NATURE SPIRITS! Please! It is too much!**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here is my new OC story!**

**Chapter 1!**

**Yeah!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

In a large, grassy meadow, two short, blonde haired girls stood together, pleasantly chatting. The both had dip-dyed hair, one pink and the other purple. One was also shorter than the other, with purple eyes matching the tips of her hair. The quiet breeze brushed their hair around and enveloped them with the scent of flowers

"I think that they are coming soon," the girl with the purple-tiped hair said.

"Yeah, Juliet, can't you smell Melodia?" the other girl asked, addressing her as she messed with her bow and quiver.

"Well, of course I can, what do you think I am, Val? Stupid or something?" Juliet snapped back.

"Of course not," the girl, Val, replied, unaffected by the insult. "I am just so super excited to see Melodia and Marina and everyone else!" she said, practically squealing with enthusiasm as she re-strung the bow and put on of the arrows back in her quiver.

"And here comes Melodia now," Juliet said, watching as a girl with messy, rainbow hair emerged from the tree line and walked over to them. She was dressed oddly, with a metallic body suit, white skirt, denim vest, and headphones, all decorated with music notes. A long flute was on her back.

"Hey guys! Am I early?" Melodia asked.

"Nope, you're on time," another voice said from behind them.

"Hey Skywalker. I'm surprised you showed up," Juliet said, turning to look at the angelic boy entering the clearing. His brown hair was perfectly wind swept, and his playful, silvery eyes scanned the clearing.

"You do realize that my holiday is coming up soon," Skywalker said angrily.

"Get over it," Juliet snapped. "It's in, like, a month."

"Who are we still waiting for?" Val asked. "I want to get this over with and go back home to play with Fluffy," she said, pronouncing the dogs' name like "Fluffeh".

"Cool your jets. We just need April and Jess," Melodia said, scanning the sky. "And there they are now," she said, spotting the two girls coming down from the sky. April landed first, her long, brown hair flaring out around her as her magical roller blades shut off, depositing her on the ground. Jess touched down after her, the long, rainbow trail that always followed her when she flew lingered for a moment before fading.

"Remind me to ask you to help me follow someone," Skywalker said, watching the obnoxious rainbow fade.

"Oh, shut up!" Jess said, punching him on the arm.

"Alright, this is everyone!" Val cheered happily. "It is so nice to see all of us in the same place at once," she squealed.

"Well, it is right after Thanksgiving, so we get a small holiday break," Skywalker said.

"Where is Thanksgivings, by the way?" Melodia asked, looking around for the spirit.

"Thanksgiving hibernates until it's time to celebrate that holiday again," Jess reminded her.

"What about Labor Day? Shouldn't he be here?" Val asked.

"He died right after his holiday," Melodia said sadly.

"How did he die?" Skywalker asked.

"Who took on his responsibility?" Juliet asked, alarmed.

"Someone killed him, and someone took on his responsibilities. We can ask about it once we get to the meeting," Jess said. "And we aren't going to get there in time if we don't leave soon," she complained.

"Well, you're the boss. Take point," Melodia said. "But I am in charge of the radio for the trip."

"Who's going to carry Val and Juliet?" Skywalker asked, raising his eyebrows. "I mean, I could..." he trailed off, grinning.

"No. They can ride with me," Jess said quickly.

"Can we just go now?" Val asked.

"Yeah, lets move," Juliet said, walking quickly towards the edge of the clearing, where a short strip of forest dropped away to reveal a cliff.

"Alright, Juliet, Val, stay close to me. Skywalker, you follow, and then Melodia, then April can bring up the rear. Any questions?" Jess asked, peeking over the edge.

"Why do I have to be in the back?" April complained as her purple jester shoes transformed back into roller blades.

"would you rather have Skywalker in the back?" Jess asked. The girls immediately shook their heads, horrified by the thought. "That's what I thought. Let's go," she said, jumping off the cliff. The rainbow trail immediately reformed, which Val and Juliet landed on. Skywalker jumped next, with enormous white wings keeping him aloft. Melodia and April followed, April with her magic rollar blades and Melodia sitting on a large kettle drum.

Jess turned towards the setting sun, with Skywalker cruising on her left and Melodia to her right, and April directly behind, forming a diamond pattern.

"How long until we get there?" April shouted from behind as they began to climb.

"Only about an hour. Don't worry," Juliet shouted. "If you need a rest, then just sit on the rainbow."

"I think we'll be fine," Skywalker shouted.

"What song should I play? I am taking requests!" Melodia shouted.

"Something upbeat," Jess shouted. "I don't want to fall asleep in the air."

"I got you!" Melodia shouted, putting on some loud dubstep.

"Oh my god, turn it off," Juliet screamed.

"Hater's gonna hate!" Melodia shouted back, standing up on the kettle drum and starting to dance. "Want to know something cool?" she called after the song had ended.

"What?" Jess asked.

"In Egypt, when there is a really bad traffic jam, people will get on top of their cars, blare the radio, and dance in rage," Melodia shouted, beginning to dance as a Shakira song came on.

"Really?" Juliet asked from the rainbow, where she was petting her chameleon which had apparently been hiding up her sleeve the entire time.

"Yeah, I've seen them," Val agreed, shooting random arrows from her bow down to earth.

"Are you even aiming?" April asked.

"Yes," Val said. "I'm shooting at those Nightmares that have been following us. I just got the last one," she said proudly.

"WHAT?" Jess screamed, almost throwing them off the rainbow.

"They're all gone now, don't worry," Val said cheerily, slinging her bow over her shoulder and brushing off her pink sundress.

"We need to report this to the others," Jess muttered. "Unfortunately, I am stuck with the wacky ones, so it'll have to wait."

"What was that, senorita?" Skywalker asked, moving closer to her.

"Nothing," she muttered. Right after she said that, Val and Juliet yelped in surprise as one of Skywalkers wings came down on their heads.

"What was that for?" Juliet screeched.

"I could think of a number of things," Skywalker said. "But, for once, this time was an accident."

"Fine. I am going to dance with rage on this rainbow," Juliet said. Val stood up to join her, and April landed on the rainbow as well. Soon, the three girls, plus Melodia, were all dancing in rage to the B-52's "Love Shack".

"Do me a favor and keep an eye out for any more Nightmares," Jess murmured, just loud enough for Skywalker to hear. He nodded and fell back, his black clothing blending him in with the shadowy clouds so only his wings were visible. Jess thanked the Man in the Moon that Skywalker listened to her.

She sighed and narrowed her eyes against the cold, upcoming wind. The music behind her changed to Gangnam Style, causing the four girls to scream and begin dancing in sync.

This was going to be a long flight.

* * *

**Chapter Done.**

**It's kinda short, but I am still learning everyone's characters.**

**So yeah.**

**Please point out any of my errors.**

**Fluffeh has had a name change so it would be easier for me to remember and type.**

**I'm still accepting OCs, but I may not if yours doesn't fit the plot line.**

**I apologise if it doesn't.**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 2!**

**Wood!**

**Yeah!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Shay let out a groan and ran her knee-length dyed hair. "Where the hell is everyone?" she asked to no one, looking around the hilly plains.

"Well, I am right here, in case if you hadn't noticed," A girl said from Shay's right.

"Hey Marina. How's it going," Shay asked absent mindedly, glancing at Marina before returning her gaze towards the setting sun.

"Good, good. Can I braid your hair?" Marina asked.

"Sure," Shay muttered. Marina began to pull the long, black hair into two high braids, the crimson and silver streaks creating a strange pattern.

"Ooh! It looks so pretty," A black-haired girl said, walking up with a broom stick under her arm. "Can you do mine next?" she asked, her voice muddled by a heavy Irish accent and a lollipop in her mouth.

"Sure Eve," Marina said, moving on to the other girl, pulling her hair into a single, lose braid. "Where is Carter?" she asked curiously.

"He's probably coming soon. He need to check up something. Apparently it was very important. I just left him to it," Eve said, biting down on the lollipop, crushing it in her mouth. She immediately pulled out a second one and began to suck on it instead.

"I'm all done," Marina said, stepping back.

"Thank you very much," Eve said. "Would you like a piece of candy? In a not creepy, kidnap you way?" she offered.

"Sure! What kind do you have?" Marina asked.

"Well, I have saltwater taffy for you," she said, tossing a small bag to Marina, "And some copyrighted chocolates that are shaped like tear drops for you, Shay," she ended, throwing a bag of the chocolate at Shay, who caught it and immediately unwrapped one of the delicious chocolates.

"Thanks, Eve," Shay said happily.

"You're welcome," Eve said. "But you really should be thanking my Jack O'Lantern workers," she added.

"Hey guys, what's up?" a boy asked, walking up as casually as possible. His black hair was messed up, and his clothes torn, but his brown eyes were bright with excitement, and possibly pain. He was also covered in feathers.

"What did you do this time?" Marina asked, walking over to brush feathers out of his hair.

"I pulled a prank on Goss while he was flying on that giant, slow goose. It didn't go too well," Carter said casually, trying to play it off. "But it was really funny."

"Good job. That stuck up jerk could use a joke sometimes," Shay said approvingly.

"Hey, what about me?" another boy asked, flying in on a floating skateboard.

"You helped out too, Zack?" Eve asked the skinny, red-eyed boy.

"Yeah..." Zack trailed off. "Quick, get these feathers off before anyone else sees," he said urgently, becoming Eve and Shay over to help.

"Why do you guys always do this?" Eve asked, sighing.

"I ask him that every day," Goss said, landing on a ginormous goose. Goss was the stereotypical beach boy, but with a giant goose that he flew around on. And this particular goose was missing half of its feathers.

"Hey Goss. What's up?" Shay asked, her lip curling with distaste.

"Nothing much," he said as a little dog hopped off of the goose.

"Who are we waiting for? We need to start heading to the meeting," Carter asked as Marina got the last of his feathers out of his hair.

"Well, we have Marina, Zack, Carter, Eve, Goss, and me," Shay said.

"So, where's Happy and New Years?" Carter asked, looking around as if they might be hiding.

"Happy has some unfinished business to take care of, apparently, and New Years is always with Happy, so I assume they will meet up with us at the meeting place," Eve said thoughtfully.

"What are we waiting for then?" Goss asked, climbing back on to his very unhappy goose.

"We are waiting for our last group member, idiot," Shay said, watching the treeless horizon. "And here he comes now," she said, watching a pale, black haired boy climb over the ridge of the nearest hill. Despite the lack of trees for miles around, several autumn leaves blew around him, dancing and floating in the gentle breeze.

"Hey Marshall! We've been waiting for you!" Eve shouted. Marshall double timed down the hill.

"Sorry I'm late," the thin, fragile looking boy said.

"It's fine. We're about to leave," Zack said, clapping him on the shoulder. "We wouldn't leave without you, though."

"Thank you all," Marshall said, still looking unsure.

"Who's going to take point?" Marina asked.

"Well, Happy usually does, but I guess I could," Carter said.

"Fine, I really don't care. Can we just get a move on?" Goss asked.

"Sure, sure," Carter said, his BMX bike appearing next to him. One appeared next to Marina too, and she hopped on. The two bikes fired up, taking to the sky. Zack followed on his skateboard, looking rather bored. Goss's goose took off next, flapping noisily. Marshall came up next on a horse made of flames. Shay followed him, riding a rainbow mop.

"Really?" Eve asked, looking at the strange mop.

"Hell yeah," Shay shouted as they all fell into a V formation, with Carter at the lead.

"I think it looks stupid," Goss said with a sniff.

"I think you look stupid," Shay snapped back.

"I think you should die then," Goss replied.

"I think that I will kill you first, dumbass," Shay shouted.

"Well, that escalated quickly," Marshall said quietly from his horse.

"How are you, by the way?" Marina asked Marshall.

"I'm good. There was a long Autumn last year, and this year Autumn started early, so I have time to enjoy it," Marshall said happily. "Or, it did in this part of the world, anyway," he said thoughtfully.

"It sucks trying to keep up with that stuff, doesn't it? With all the time changes, I mean," Eve said, joining in on the conversation. "I just go from Halloween to Halloween, following the time zones, but with you guys, you have to remember that in Australia, it's Summer while in the States, it's Winter."

"It's fine, actually. We all usually have the same amount of territory, except when it comes to the more northern and southern parts. It's always winter once you get above Canada, and it's always hot in parts of the middle east, but it is never just Autumn or Spring anywhere, which kind of sucks, but it's still fine," Marshall said.

"That is very accepting of you," Marina said. "I'm sorry that Summer takes up so much extra room."

"It's fine. I manage, and so does the Springtime Spirit," Marshall said. "It could be worse."

"Yes, it could. Now, I really don't care about any of this, so could we please shut up and focus on our destination?"Goss asked crossly.

Eve made some obscure comment about feathers being shoved up the wrong place, causing everyone, even little Marshall, to giggle. Goss began to shout at them in rage, creating even more laughter.

...

Happy looked up at the sky and saw the others zoom past in their loose V formation. She could hear their laughter, and all the shouting, and the swearing. She frowned. She would have to talk to them about the swearing later, but now was not the time.

She turned and flew low in the opposite direction, past a frozen lake, and to a small, broken bed with a deep hole underneath it. She had been coming past here daily, in secret, to make sure nothing was happening in the pit. In the past month, though, she had begun to hear noises, slight at first, barely loud enough to hear, but now they were defiantly there. Voices, plotting, planning, scheming, to do something big.

New Years let out a quiet cry. Happy moved away from the pit and slung the pack off of her shoulders. In the pack was little baby New Years, an adorable little baby with a tuft of black hair and already coppery skin. He was usually smiling, except when he was near anything associated with Pitch or the darkness that he caused. Now was not a smiling time.

Happy comforted the little baby, deep in thought. She had noticed that, after the increase of activity in the hole, things began to go wrong. Eve's factory began to have mysterious accidents, forest fires began to happen in the winter, pranks of all sorts began to backfire.

The spirit of Labor Day was killed.

And Happy planned on taking this up with the top guardians, but she could never talk to any of them. They were all to busy. So now all she could do was talk to the others at the meeting.

Happy sighed, slung the pack back onto her shoulder, with New Years now sleeping, and took off back to the sky, taking the long way around to the meeting point. She could use a break from those idiots.

It's a shame that she didn't notice that someone was following her.

Or something.

* * *

**Chapter done!**

**That's two chapters in one day!**

**You people are so demanding.**

**I hope you're happy! **

**Anyway, point out my mistakes!**

**All of them!**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 3!**

**Yeah!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Pitch looked around his cavern sighing. The place looked terrible due to his sudden loss in believers. The black globe in front of him was lit up like a Christmas tree, showing all the happy children in the world, which seemed to make him angry.

Very angry.

He growled. "Someone give me an update!" Pitch called out. A pale girl, no more than 13, approached him very cautiously. Her green and brown eyes stared at him with fear. The girl's blood red lips trembled before she spoke.

"Well, we have almost all of the materials that we need to create the energy storer, but we still need some rare materials," the girl whispered, shaking in her black leather boots.

"Tianna," Pitch said, addressing the brightly dressed girl. "Get it done! This cannot wait!" he screamed. Tianna backed away quickly in surprise, almost tripping.

"Stop yelling at her!" a boy shouted. He looked a lot like Tianna, white as a ghost and freckled, with black hair and multi colored eyes. Pitch prepared to start screaming at the boy when someone else walked in.

"Tyler, shut up. I need to tell Pitch something," a curly-haired French boy said, silencing the angry boy.

"What is it, Pere?" Pitch asked, calming down immediately.

"Well, we found a holiday who is easy to track, and I had Difunto and Primal Beast get on her trail," Pere said. Difunto and Primal Beast were the best trackers of their small group, due to their animal forms.

"How does this help with our energy gathering?" Pitch asked impatiently.

"Well, now we can find the meeting spot of the holidays," Pere suggested.

"That still doesn't..." Pitch trailed off.

"And Primal Beast has, over the course of months, gathered a list of data about each holiday," Pere said, presenting the huge list to Pitch, who snatched it and began to read through it quickly. "It shows some of their energy capabilities, but not all."

"Good. I think we have found our test subject," Pitch smiled evilly, examining the list.

"Well, the machine should be ready soon." Tianna said cautiously from the shadows.

"Wonderful," Pitch said, distractedly.

"Where is Bogg?" Pere asked.

"I'm here!" Bogg shouted, appearing out of nowhere. The brown-haired boy's black clothes were more torn and dirty than usual.

"Finally. What do you have to report?" Pere asked. Bogg was working as a messenger between the trackers and the headquarters. He found it boring, and too easy.

"It turns out that one of the holidays has begun to notice our actions," Bogg said. "She plans on getting council with the Guardians to tell them what is going on," he added.

"That will take them a while. Those meaningless holidays have tried to get council for decades," Pitch said.

"I don't know. Maybe this time they'll make it. The new Guardian, Jack, could change everything," Pere said.

"Good," Pitch said, surprising everyone. "That gives me an excuse to kill him, even though I don't actually need one."

"We should suck all the energy out of him first," Tyler suggested.

"He would just get it back," Pitch muttered.

"What do you mean?" Bogg asked.

"From my observations, the holiday's power is like water in a dam. Some water can escape, but it is very controlled. Break the dam, and all the water comes out," Pitch said.

"And then the subject dies from lack of energy. We already know that," Pere pointed out.

"Yes, but what you don't know is that the dam will rebuild and refill itself over and over, as long as there is a little bit left over," Pitch explained. "I drained the energy out of the Labor Day spirit, but it just kept coming back, over and over. I couldn't store the energy, and since it was pointless to keep that spirit around anymore, I killed him," Pitch recounted.

"So, they aren't just like batteries," Tyler said.

"They are self recharging batteries," Tianna said in awe.

"Yes. So we would only have to capture one or two to provide enough power for my plan," Pitch said. "A test subject and a real subject ought to do it," he mused.

"But which ones?" Tyler asked.

"When it comes to the test subject, it won't matter. We'll probably drain all the energy, and then get rid of it. The real subject that we keep matters much more," Pere muttered.

"Indeed," Pitch said, before turning to the scraggly, black-haired boy. "Bogg, go and tell Difunto and Primal Beast to figure out which of the lesser holidays has the most power. Tell them to figure it out quickly."

"Gotcha," Bogg said, vanishing into a shadow passage.

"Tianna, Tyler, you two go and work on the machine. Gather all of the materials that you need," Pitch ordered.

"What about me?" Pere asked as the sibling left.

"You will help me perfect my plan," Pitch said.

"And what would this plan be?" Pere asked curiously.

"Why, I am going to wipe of the Guardians, and all the stupid little holidays," Pitch declared, making his way towards a back room.

"And then darkness and fear will rule the world," Pere muttered to himself with a smile, following after the Lord of Nightmares.

...

Difunto and Primal Beast were moving quickly through the forest, quietly after the holiday. Difunto was gliding along in his animal form, where he turned into a giant feathered serpent. He had been worshipped years ago by the ancient Mesoamericans, where they called Quetzalcoatl, among other names, and they provided human sacrifices for him. They especially loved him for his colorful assortment of feathers: reds, yellows, greens, and blues.

Primal Beast was in his, well beast form. He had shaggy brown fur covering his entire body. His long muzzle was filled with razor-sharp fangs, and he had devilish horns on his head. He was absolutely horrifying, too horrifying to speak of.

Both beasts were focused on following the holiday. They moved silently through the trees, leaping from branch to branch silently. They slowed down as the holiday landed in a clearing. More of the lesser holidays swooped down to meet with it. It wasn't all of them, though, which told the hunters that this was not the meeting point.

The holidays took to the air, and the hunters prepared to follow when they were interrupted by a voice.

"Psst," the voice whispered.

"Bogg! What the hell are you doing here?" Difunto asked, enraged by the dirty boys sudden appearance and his own inability to hear him approaching.

"Pitch has sent a message for you," Bogg said.

"Well, are you going to tell us what it is?" Primal Beast asked.

"Maybe..." Bogg trailed off, grinning like a little kid. "Or maybe not."

"We don't have time for this," Primal Beast said, preparing to leave.

"Wait! I will tell you, but you both must be present," Bogg said, still smiling. "And they are really complicated, so..."

"Fine. Difunto, send a Nightmare to follow the holidays for the time being. We can catch up later," Primal Beast ordered. Difunto nodded and let out a loud hiss. Immediately, around a dozen Nightmares took off after the holidays.

"Good, good," Bogg said.

"For darkness sake, just tell us what the orders are," Difunto hissed, rearing up angrily. Bogg seemed to shrink at the sight of the rainbow snake rearing up.

"He just wants you to record the exact amount of energy that each holiday has stored," Bogg said, beginning to tremble.

"That's it?" Primal Beast growled. "You took us off of an important trail for that? You idiot!" he exclaimed before turning and racing after the holidays.

"Stop being so childish," Difunto hissed, slithering quickly after Primal Beast, leaving Bogg alone.

"It was funny though!" he whined to no one. "Besides, it's not like you won't be able to find them again," he called out.

If Bogg knew anything, it was that no holiday had ever escaped those two hunters.

Especially when it came to easy prey like these.

* * *

**Chapter done!**

**That is 3 chapters in 3 days!**

**Accomplishment!**

**Yeah!**

**Still accepting OCs.**

**Point out my mistakes.**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6!**

**Yay!**

**I was really tired when I wrote this.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Eira made her way through the pine forest, surrounded by huge evergreen trees. She rode on the back of an enormous golden stag. She continued through the forest, the stag trotting happily along. Eventually, they reached a house perched at the edge of a cliff. Eira got off of the stag, which snorted happily, and entered the house. The inside was very comfortable, with a nice living room that contained arm chairs and sofas, and the doors into other rooms.

"Stella? Aurora? Are you in here?" Eira called out.

"Hey there Eira!" an amber eyed girls said from one of the arm chairs. She was braiding a section of her long, black hair from behind one ear and over the other.

"Hello Aurora. Is Stella here too?" Eira asked.

"Yeah. She just got out of the shower," Aurora said, finishing up her braid.

"Hello Eira! I thought that I heard my name being called," Stella said, walking into the room. Her short, choppy black hair was wet. Her clear, sightless eyes remained motionless as she greeted Eira.

"Why are you here? Are you going to teach us something new?" Aurora asked excitedly. Stella and Aurora were both new at the entire "spirits of nature, immortal and invisible" thing, so Eira decided to teach them and keep a watchful eye on them. They were also both as shy as one could get.

"No. Today is the annual meeting, and I have decided to take you both with me this time," Eira said. The two girls let out little squeals of excitement.

"When do we leave?" Aurora asked, her amber eyes lit up with excitement.

"In about 10 minutes. Stella, go dry your hair and both of you put on something a little cleaner than what you have," Eira said. "I need to change too."

"Okay!" Aurora said, running into her bed room. Stella vanished back into the bathroom to dry off her hair. Eira went into her own room and changed into a simple golden dress with trumpet like sleeves. She had regular boots underneath. She ran a comb carefully through her long black hair, avoiding the leaves that seemed permanently stuck in them. She then exited her room and sat in the living room, waiting for the other two girls.

Aurora was the first one to arrive back, sporting tight khaki pants and a tight sweater that was decorated with fireflies. On her head sat her usual white beanie.

"Do you have to wear that beanie all the time?" Eira asked. "It hides your pretty braid."

"I always wear it!" Aurora exclaimed.

"Alright. It looks fine, I assume," Stella said, emerging from the bathroom. She was wearing a black, long-sleeved t-shirt with a shooting star on it, which she tucked into her grey pants which were, in turn, tucked into her knee-high boots.

"Alright, you both look very nice. Let's go," Eira said, ushering them out the door and into the late autumn breeze. Eira got onto her stag with Aurora, who couldn't fly on her own, and took to the sky. Stella summoned her giant bunny, which was made of gases from Jupiter's red spot, and followed after Eira.

"Which way is it?" Stella asked, subdued after her earlier burst of excitement.

"Just follow me. We should arrive there in about half an hour," Eira replied.

"Don't you mean follow Cedar?" Stella asked.

"Yes yes, fine. We are heading to a clearing somewhat north of here," Eira said, cringing as her heavy Welsh accent destroyed half of her sentence. Thankfully, she had been around these two girls for a very long time, which had gotten them used to her accent.

"Yay!" Stella said. "Make sure to describe it for me."

"Don't I always?" Aurora asked, giggling.

...

Half an hour later, Cedar began to descend. Aurora immediately noticed and started talking.

"Are we there?" she asked excitedly.

"Yes, it's right below us," Eira confirmed. "And it appears that we are late. Stella, your description will have to wait until later."

"Of course," Stella said. "That's fine."

The steeds continued their descent, eventually landing in the middle of an enormous clearing. There were wooden thrones forming a circle in the middle of the clearing, each with a distinguishing sign on them, like a heart for Valentine's Day or a clover for St. Patrick's Day.

"Sorry I'm late. I decided to bring these two along with me at the last second. I hope that's okay," Eira said, taking her seat.

"Of course, that's fine," Juliet said.

"Let's just take our seats. I had a feeling that you'd be bringing them with you this time, so we got them their own seats," Jess said.

"Thank you," the two girls said happily. Aurora and Stella took their seats next to Eira.

"Now, it's time for role," Happy said.

"Alright, I'll start, and then we go around," Eira said. "I am Eira, Spirit of Yuletide."

"I am Aurora, Spirit of Light."

"I'm Val, Spirit of St Valentine's Day."

"Goss, Son of Mother Goose."

"I am Zack, Spirit of Independence Day."

"I'm April, the amazing Spirit of April Fool's Day."

"I'm Jess, Spirit of St. Patrick's Day."

"I'm Skywalker, Spirit of Elemantus Clelebras."

"I'm Marina, Spirit of Water and Summertime."

"I'm Melodia, Spirit of Music and Springtime."

"I'm Marshall, and I'm the Spirit of Autumn and Fire."

"I'm Carter, and I represent the Trick part of Halloween."

"I'm Eve, and I'm the Treat part."

"I'm Happy, and I'm the Spirit of Birthdays, and this is New Years, who, of course, represents New Years."

"I'm Shay and I represent Antarctica Day."

"And I'm Stella, and I think I represent the cosmos in the sky."

"Wait, I have a question," Aurora said once everyone had finished.

"Yes, what is it?" Goss asked impatiently.

"Well, I've heard of most of these holidays from the time that I was human, but what is Elemantus Clelebras and Antarctica Day?" she asked.

"Well, no one remembers Elemantus Clelebras as a holiday, but they all somehow still believe in it, thus my existence," Skywalker said.

"And Antarctica Day is the day that the 12 nations signed the treaty that states that Antarctica is to be used for only peaceful purposes," Shay explained.

"Oh. Okay," Aurora said, still slightly confused.

"I will explain it to you later," Eira muttered to her friend. Aurora nodded.

"Moving on, I have some tragic news to share with all of you," Jess said, her grip tightening on the arm rest, causing little rainbows to shoot out. "Labor Day has been killed."

"What?" Val asked, horrified. Around the council, there were many more cries of shock and horror.

"Yes, he is dead. We found his crook a few months ago," Jess said.

"How did he die?" Marina asked, sharing a tearful look with Melodia.

"We don't know how he died, but we all know who is responsible," Skywalker said. "It must have been Pitch."

"And his partners," Happy said quietly.

"His partners?" April asked, her hazel eyes wide with surprise. "I thought that he worked alone."

"For a while now, it seems that he has gathered some support from other holidays. We are unsure of which ones," Happy said, closing her yellow eyes. "This must mean that he is planning something. Some sort of attack against the children or the Guardians."

"We have to warn them then," Zack said immediately.

"I have tried time and time again to get their attention," Happy said, exhausted. "We all have. They don't care about us lesser holidays."

"Maybe the Man in the Moon could talk to them for us," Stella suggested.

"You are a very special and naïve girl if you think that the Man in the Moon will talk to us. We see him every night, and we never hear anything from him," Shay said sadly.

"I could go talk to him," Stella offered.

"And how would you do that?" Goss asked. "You'd have to be quite powerful to do that."

"Not particularly," Stella said. "I could do it now if you wanted me to, but I'd have some trouble getting back."

"Here, I think we can help you," Juliet said, sliding off of her chair. She gestured to Val, who hopped down as well. "Okay, the way this works is that you take the three of us with you, and then Val and I can help you get back."

"Okay. I guess we could try that," Stella said, hopping down unsteadily. "Just know this now: I am fully and completely blind, so I may trip occasionally."

"I trip occasionally too, Don't worry," Val said helpfully as Stella made her way over.

"Now, would you like to start?" Juliet asked.

"Yes," Stella said, taking the other girls' hands. "Ready?" she asked. The girls nodded. "Can I please have a verbal response?"

"Oh, sorry. We are both ready," Val said.

"Alright," Stella said. She bowed her head, and then the three girls vanished in a shower of stars, leaving behind a single playing card.

...

"They sure have been gone a while," Aurora said. "I hope that they are alright."

"I'm sure that they're fine," Eira said confidently. Once Aurora had turned away to talk to Goss, who was two seats down, Aurora allowed herself to glance at the sky nervously. _What in the name of everything is taking them so long?_

"I think they are coming back!" Marshall said, sounding very excited. The playing card that had been discarded on the ground began to glow, and, in a flash of brilliant light, the three girls reappeared, giggling madly.

"Okay, he said he would see what he could do," Stella said as Val and Juliet helped her back into her seat.

"Are you all okay?" Marina asked, looking them over for injuries.

"Yeah, it's just that the lack of oxygen made us all woozy," Val said, attempting to get back into her chair, but failing miserably.

"So he said that he'd send the Guardians a message?" Jess asked.

"Yes," Stella confirmed. "They should receive it tonight."

"Good. That's one thing taken care of," Happy said, tickling little New Years on the belly, causing him to giggle and squeal.

"What about Labor Day? Who will take on his responsibility?" Carter asked, concerned.

"As you know, after the deaths of the Spirit's of Springtime, Fire, and Water, we gave their responsibilities to Melodia, Marshall, and Marina respectively. Now, with the death of Labor Day, we have decided to give the responsibility to Marshall, since it does fall in his category," Happy explained.

"Good job Marshall! I'm sure that you'll do amazingly," Marina said. Marshall gave her a fleeting smile.

"That is all that we need to discuss in this meeting, unless someone has something else to say," Happy announced.

"I do," Jess said.

"Yeah, she has something important to say," Skywalker said, with Val and April nodding in agreement.

"On our way here, we were tailed by some Nightmares. The were taken out by Val, but still, it does raise a level of concern," Jess said.

"Yes, it does," Happy said, trailing off.

"We should remain in groups of at least 3 for the time being," Jess suggested.

"That is an excellent idea," Eira said, smirking. "I will take Stella and Aurora."

"I'll go with my fellow seasons," Marina said, gesturing to Marshall and Melodia, much to Carter's disappointment.

"I'll take my prankster pals," Zack said, high fiving Carter and April.

"Shay and Val can come with me," Juliet suggested, reciving nods of agreement from the two girls.

"I'll take Goss and Eve with me," Happy said, rising out of her chair.

"Wait, then who am I with?" Jess asked.

Happy grinned. "Why, you are with the only person that's left," she said before taking to the air, followed by the boy on the giant goose and the girl on the broomstick, heading north. April, Carter, and Zack flew off on rollerblades, a skateboard, and a BMX bike, heading east. Eira and her group flew off to the west. Carter, Melodia, and Marina vanished in a swirl of autumn leaves, flowers, and music.

"But wait," she called, "Whose still..." she trailed off.

"Oh my Man in the Moon, I don't want to be with her," Skywalker moaned.

"Well, you don't have much of a choice," Juliet said, throwing down a teleportation card, which opened a portal. Shay and Val walked through, and Juliet followed them, pausing only to look back and smirk at the remaining two spirits before disappearing.

"This sucks," Jess said angrily, taking to the sky with her rainbow trail, and turning south.

"That is the understatement of the century," Skywalker muttered, following after her on giant, white wings.

...

In the shadows, as all the holidays dispersed, was Difunto and Primal Beast.

"I think we have collected enough data for now," Difunto hissed.

"Yes, let's go back and give our report to Pitch," Primal Beast said quietly, and the two monsters turned and vanished into the shadowy forest, leaving Nightmares to trail the spirits.

* * *

**Chapter Done!**

**Yay!**

**It's really long too.**

**I hope you all don't mind.**

**Point out any errors that I may have made.**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter...whatever number this is!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Zack, Carter, and April had been heading east, away from the meeting point, for about two hours now.

"Why are we heading this way?" April asked, tying her long brown hair into a pony tail as they flew.

"Yeah, both of us live the other way," Zack pointed out.

"My house is this way, and it's the closest, so I thought that we'd head there," Carter explained. "And here it is now."

They spotted a brown, circular house peeking out from the dark woods. It had black beams visible on the outside and a roof shaped like a dome. It was surrounded by creepy looking trees and a rickety old gate with sharp points. It gave off an eerie vibe, which was increased by the cemetary that filled the front yard.

April glanced around, nervously adjusting her rucksack. "Well, this place looks-."

"Really creepy," Zack said, glancing around.

"Really? I thought that I had gone light on the decorations this year," Carter said, pushing open the gate and leading the way along the cobblestone path. "Don't look at the grave stones," he warned.

"And why not?" April asked, keeping her eyes fixed on the sky. Zack immediately tried to look at the tombstone, but was slapped by April.

"Yeah, why can't we look?" Zack asked, nursing his red cheek and staring upwards.

"You may see something that you want to forget," Carter said darkly. Zack and April shared a worried glance, which was hard to do when you are looking straight up. Carter usually seemed so upbeat and happy.

"Uh, okay. We promise that we will never ever look," April promised. Carter remained silent until they had reached the curved purple door, which he shove open.

"Ah! Home sweet home!" he proclaimed, switching on the lights. It wasn't creepy at all inside. Instead, it was a perfect pranksters paradise. The circular room was filled with water balloons, buckets, streamers, gunpowder, C4, and a large variety of tape. A ladder lead up to a second floor, were the bedrooms, kitchen, and bathroom probably were.

"This place is amazing," April squealed. She immediately rushed over to a table full of scrap metal and slung her rucksack off of her shoulder. She opened it, pulled out a number of gears, screws, bolts, and nails, and began to assemble some sort of contraption. Zack went over to the explosive section and began to play around with all the dangerous items. Carter went to grab some soda for everyone from upstairs. Upon hearing a loud explosion, he hurried back down the ladder and saw Zack peeling himself off of the wall.

"Haha! That was awesome," April declared from behind a table, where she had taken cover. Carter sighed and looked around, thinking. April and Zack began to clean up all the explosive residue.

Carter placed the three soda cans on the table. Zack and April came over and took their sodas.

"You know what we should do?" Carter asked, grinning. The other two just shrugged and popped their sodas open.

And got covered in a a spray of soda.

"Why you little-," April began, pulling a water balloon of the table and hurling at Carter, who ducked. It ended up hitting Zack square in the face. They all looked at each other with huge grins.

"Prank War!" they all shouted. April immediatly threw herself backwards, rolling over the table and knocking it down onto its side, forming a protective barrier for herself. Zack threw down a smoke bomb and disappeared. He secretly hid in the ventilation shaft with enough gunpowder and firecrackers to support a full scale war. Carter simply sighed and walked over to a corner, and began tinkering.

...

"It's so nice that we all calmed down enough to eat dinner," Zack commented, three hours later. He was carefully examining the chair that he was about to sit in.

"Relax, I didn't rig it or anything," Carter said as he lay out the dinner mats on the scorched table.

"Alright, if you say so," Zack said, sitting down in the chair. It held for a few seconds before collapsing, landing Zack flat on his back. "I thought you said that you didn't rig it!" he shouted.

"I did say that," Carter agreed, "but April never said such a thing." At that moment, April walked into the room with the plates and silverware. When she saw Zack on the ground, she immediately began to laugh.

"I can't believe that you fell for that," April giggled, setting the dinnerware down before falling to her knees, succumbing to a serious case of the chuckles.

"Shut up. Not all of us can be the great April of April Fools," Zack muttered, getting up.

"That holiday was only named after me, not me after it," April said, regaining her composure and taking a seat.

"Really? And how did that come around?" Carter asked, setting down glasses of water.

"Well, when I was alive, my dad was a court jester. Every kingdom knew about him, and how funny he was," April said, reminiscing. "I always wanted to be just like him, just a normal jester," she smiled at the memory, but that smile faded as she continued on. "One day, the castle that he was performing in, an army from an enemy kingdom came and attacked the castle. They took my dad and my older sister. My mom died the next day from shock. Then I got to wander around for a while, alone, before the Man in the Moon came to me and offered to make my dreams come true: To make me a jester forever," she was smiling again. "I was so happy for those first few years, because it was so fun. Everyone saw me and believed in me. But then the dark ages came, and everyone stopped laughing," her voice had slowly grown softer and softer, to the point that she trailed off, muttering soundlessly to herself.

"What happened then?" Zack asked, sitting cautiously in a chair, which did not collapse on him.

"Well, I faded away," April said. "But there was one little family that still believed in me, so I wasn't gone for good."

"And then people started believing in you again, and you came back," Carter finished for her, coming back into the room with plates of candy, sugar, and pizza.

"Yeah, but I am still invisible to humans," April finished, a little sad, taking some candy. "What about you, Zack? I mean, I know Carter pretty well, but I know practically nothing about you."

"There isn't much to tell," Zack said. "I just lived with my grandfather in a small town. Played with fireworks, made absolutely no friends, got drafted for the Revolutionary Army, and died on July 4th, 1776, also known as Independence Day," Zack said, smiling. "It's kind of cliché, but it's true. After that, the Man in the Moon granted me immortality and made me the spirit of July 4th."

"Wow, that's...sad," April finished her sentence awkwardly. "I had a choice to become a spirit. You just...died."

"Yeah," Zack said, leaning back comfortably in his chair, smiling still. "It doesn't matter, though, because I'm here now. What about you, Carter? What's your story?"

"Well, I began a spirit around 300 years ago. My parent's were strict, wanting me to be super academic like my older brother and sister. They never understood me. I just wanted to joke around and have fun, not study. Then, I just disappeared. I tried talking to them, getting their attention, but they couldn't see me anymore. It was like I never existed," Carter said sadly. The other two remained silent, unsure of what to say. Carter looked up and smiled. "Well, let's eat, shall we?"

"Yeah!" Zack exclaimed, grabbing the pepper and immediately adding it to the pizza on his plate. The cap popped off, dumping the all of the contents onto his pizza.

"That one was me," Carter admitted, smiling and grabbing slice of pizza. "Do you want some pizza, April?"

"No thanks, I'm good," she replied. She had filled her plate with chocolate, which she topped off with an entire can of whipped cream.

"Um, shouldn't you, I don't know, lay of the sugar a little?" Zack asked, causing her to laugh.

"No, of course not," she said, taking a bite and smiling with happiness.

"I'm sorry about this," Zack said, pulling on a hair thin trip wire, which dumped water all over April. She simply sighed, hit a button on a remote, and dumped a bucket of water all over Carter, who froze in surprise.

"Sorry Carter. That was meant for Zack," April apologized.

"That's fine," Carter said, yanking on a separate trip wire, which dumped water all over Zack, who then fell out of his chair.

"Today is not your day for chairs," April said, wringing out her soaked hair.

"Shut up, both of you," Zack muttered. "Can one of you help me up?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure," April said, grabbing onto his hand. Unfortunately, she didn't notice the joybuzzer. An electric shock went through both her and Zack at once, knocking them both to the ground.

"I thought that joybuzzers just used coiled up springs, not electricity," Carter commented.

"Well, mine's special," Zack said, spasming on the ground.

"You idiot," April said, on the ground next to him. "Didn't you realize that we were both wet?"

"I'm so photographing this," Carter said, taking out an old-fashioned camera. "Smile!" he exclaimed, only to be met by some seriously colorful swearing. "Now now, you don't want me to tell Happy about your language choices, do you?" he threatened.

"I think that this counts as an exception," Zack said between cuss words.

"I suppose so," Carter said, taking his seat, only to have it make a loud farting noise. "A whoopee cushion. Not bad, April," Carter commented, removing the rubber object.

"When did you have time to do that?" Zack asked. He and April were still trying to recover from the shock.

"I'm just really good at what I do," April said breathlessly.

"Nice," Zack said, reaching over to give her a fist bump. The moment their fists touched, another electric shock was released, causing them to spasm again. The three pranksters began to laugh.

"I hope that everyone is having as much fun as us," Carter said, taking more photos of his swearing, spasming friends.

* * *

**Chapter done!**

**I hope you guys liked it!**

**Tell me all of my errors!**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter... I don't know.**

**Can someone tell me what chapter this is?**

**Please?**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Val pulled open the door to her house and ushered in her two guests, Shay and Juliet.

"Welcome to my home!" she exclaimed, flicking on the lights. It revealed the entrance into a truely Valentine's house: pink hearts, pink couches, a pink bed, pink carpets, pink drapes. But, unlike most cases, the pink here seemed to go together well. There were light pinks, and dark pinks, and some reds, which made it so the entire house was not completely overwhelming.

"Thank you!" Juliet said, entering the house, and instantly being tackled by a huge, snarling German Shepard.

"OH MY GOD!" Shay screamed, jumping back from the dog. Juliet just sat there, screaming as the dog bore down on her. Her pet chameleon jumped onto her chest, with it's little Mardi Gras necklace tangled, as he tried to defend her.

"Fluffy, get down. They're friends," Val commanded, saying the dog's name like "Fluffeh". The dog immediately got off of Juliet and began to dance around his owner, yipping happily. Juliet and Shay just remained where they were, frozen with fear.

"What is that?" Shay asked, clinging to the door in fear.

"This is Fluffy!" Val exclaimed, stroking the dog's head. Now that it wasn't trying to eat Juliet, it looked absolutely adorable and fluffy.

Hence the name.

"OH MY GOD!" Shay screamed again.

"What? What is it? Did part of my body slip into another time stream again?" Juliet asked, checking to make sure that all of her was still there.

"No, you're wearing purple," Shay finished in a whisper.

"You just noticed that?" Juliet asked.

"Please get rid of it," Shay said, moving back slightly. This was the most bizarre occurence that either of the other girls had ever seen. It was like throwing garlic at Dracula or kryptonite at Superman.

"Okay, I'll get changed," Juliet muttered. "Where's your bathroom?" she asked Val.

"Down the hall, third door on the left," she said, trying to calm Shay down

"Thanks," Juliet said. "Be back in a flash." She returned after a few minutes. She was still wearing her black and green miniskirt, but her purple t-shirt had been replaced with a green and black striped one, and her purple skater shoes had been changed to plain green ones.

"Thank the Lord," Shay said when she saw Juliet's changed outfit.

"Is this better?" Juliet asked, annoyed.

"Yes. That is infinitely better," Shay said, breathing out a sigh of relief. She then proceeded to enter the house and flop down on the cushion that sat in the middle of the room. She froze, as if thinking of something, and turned back to stare at Juliet.

"What is it this time?" Juliet asked.

"Your hair," Shay whispered. It was true. Juliet's long, silvery blonde hair ended with purple on the tips.

"That cannot be helped," Juliet said. "You're going to have to get over that."

"Fine," Shay moaned childishly. Val just walked into the room.

"I'm going to make some dinner," Val declared, walking into the kitchen.

"Cool. We're going to just chill in here," Juliet said, closing the front door and flopping down onto cushion next to Shay.

"Hey Val! Do you have a computer?" Shay called.

"Yeah! It's on the desk," she shouted back. Shay rolled off of the giant cushion and walked over to the small, cherry wood desk and sat down. The monitor screen was shaped like a giant heart, as was the mouse and mouse pad.

"I'm not surprised that she would have a heart-shaped computer," Juliet muttered, walking over to the computer. Shay was typing away like a maniac, until she eventually reached a random fanfiction website.

"Ah, lemons," she breathed, clicking one one of them. Juliet stood over Shay's shoulder, squinting at the screen. She got 4 lines down before turning away,

"Oh my gosh! Really? Really? You don't read stuff like that at someone else's house!" Juliet exclaimed, walking over to a heart-shaped bookcase. This bookcase was shaped like a real human heart, oddly enough. It's shelves were filled with books and pictures.

She picked up a frame and examined it. The picture showed Val hugging someone. It was a girl, who appeared to 10 or so, with long, blonde hair like Val's, but with bright red streaks. The girl wore blue jeans, a black top, and a jacket. She had a blue eye patch, which was flipped up in this photo, revealing one red-eye, the other being a normal shade of blue.

"Who's this?" Juliet asked aloud. Val poked her head around the corner and saw the picture.

"That's a friend of mine. She should be coming over at any time," Val said.

"Really? You guys look so alike though," Juliet commented.

"Yeah. We're basically like sisters. We even share Valentine's Day," Val replied.

"What? How so?" Shay asked, being distracted from her story.

"Well," Val said from the kitchen, "I represent people being in love and staying in love. If they start to bicker and argue, I shoot them with my arrow, which helps them remember why they love each other. The girl in that photo, she is falling in love. She goes around, shooting people so they fall in love."

"Why are we just hearing about her now?" Juliet asked.

"And why wasn't she at the meeting?" Shay added.

"Well, we weren't sure if she was going to come or not. When we got the Man in the Moon's attention at the meeting, Happy decided to send out messages to some of the other holidays, telling them about the situation. A group of them are on standby. If we do get an audience with the Guardians, then they will join us. My sister decided to meet up with us here," Val explained. "And she is a fairly solitary person. I didn't tell her that you two were here."

"So, when she comes in, we could potentially scare the pee out of her," Juliet giggled.

"Yup! Try not to, though," Val said, returning to her baking. Within a few minutes, the delicious scent of brownies began to waft out of the kitchen and into the living room.

"It smells so good!" Shay groaned.

"I know!" Juliet agreed. They were now sitting on a couch that rested against a huge window.

"Can we please have some?" Shay called out.

"No," Val replied. "We need to wait for my sister!"

A slight noise, almost like cracking ice, reached Juliet's ears. She paused, wondering what it was.

Then she remembered that there was a giant window behind them.

"Move!" she shouted, tackling a surprised Shay off of the couch, covering both of their faces as the window shattered, flinging pink-tinged glass everywhere.

"Neoelle!" Val squealed as the girl from the photo stepped into the room.

"You didn't tell me that you had company," Neoelle said quietly.

"I know," Val said, wrapping the short girl in a hug. "But I also knew that you wouldn't come if I said that other people would be here." Shay and Juliet began to pick themselves off of the floor, carefully shaking glass out of their hair and off of their clothes.

"Hello! I think!" Juliet said, her eyes squeezed shut. She was not about to risk getting a glass shard in her eyes. Fluffy danced over, wiggling and jumping all over Neoelle, covering her with dog hair. A cat trotted into the room, growled at Fluffy, and jumped into Neoelle's arms.

"It's okay Ull," she said, cuddling the furious cat.

"I'm glad you could make it," Val said earnestly.

"Is it true that the Man in the Moon has finally responded to you?" Neoelle asked, taking a seat at the dining room table.

"It would appear so," Juliet said. Neoelle looked at her with a look of distaste.

"How long are you going to wait for an answer?" she asked, turning back to Val.

"Happy said 2 days. We are remaining in groups until then for protection. Nightmares and Fearlings have been haunting several of us for quite some time. She was worried that Pitch would try to strike before we get the opportunity to talk to the Guardians," Shay said.

"Smart," Neoelle said with grudging approval. "I'll stay until then."

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Val exclaimed, bringing in the brownies and setting them on the table. Everyone took some and devoured them with great vigor. It only took three minutes for them to demolish an entire tray.

"Yum," Juliet sighed, leaning back in her chair.

"I'll get some more," Val said, excusing herself back into the kitchen.

"Thank you!" Shay called after her.

"You're welcome!" she sang back, disappearing behind the light pink swinging door.

"So, what's your story?" Shay asked, turning to Neoelle.

"Not much, and nothing that you need to know," she muttered, watching as Ull mopped the crumbs off of the tray, getting pieces caught in his long, dark fur.

"Aw! He's so cute!" Juliet exclaimed, reaching out to pet him. The second her hand touched the feline's head, all hell broke loose. The cat let out an ear splitting caturwal and attacked Juliet's hand, leaving deep gouge marks, before launching himself away, out of a window. Shay screamed in surprise and fell back in her chair, knocking over Val, who had just emerged from the kitchen. The tray of brownies that Val had been carrying was launched into the air, and landed hard on Juliet's head, knocking her out cold.

"What is happening?!" Val shouted from underneath Shay's chair.

"I don't know!" Shay shouted back unnecessarily.

"Is Juliet alright?" Val asked, lowering her voice back to a normal level.

"I don't know that either!" Shay screamed. "She was just going to pet the cat, and 2 seconds later, I am on the ground, Juliet's unconcious, and the stupid cat is out a window."

"It's her fault," Neoelle said angrily. "She shouldn't have tried to pet Ull."

"Do you want me to go find him?" Val asked, finally extracting herself from underneath Shay.

"No," Neoelle said, rising from her chair. "I will. You would only frighten him off more."

Val let out a sigh and watched her friend walk away, out the recently broken window, and into the night.

"She's the spirit of Valentine's Day? The falling in love part? I don't think so," Shay spat, finally getting up.

"She's really sweet. She just has to get used to you. Just give her a chance," Val said while administering immediate first aide to Juliet, who was still out.

"Maybe. Do you have everything handled here?" Shay asked, changing the topic quickly.

"Yeah," Val said, applying disinfectant and gauze to the gash on Juliet's head.

"Good. I'm going to go read some more lemons," Shay said, stepping over Juliet's unconcious form and into the lliving room. Fluffy barked happily and pranced after her.

...

"Ull? Ull! Where have you gone?" Neoelle called out, checking around the enormous, rolling plains that surrounded the house. The grass had left a blaringly obvious trail of where the cat had run off to. Neoelle sighed and followed the trench that had been cut into the knee high grass, which got higher with every step that she took.

"Ull! Where are you?" she shouted again. This time, she was met with pitiful mewling. Neoelle gasped as she saw Ull limp back on to the path, nursing an injured paw.

"Mreow?" Ull cried out. Neoelle gasped and and ran foreward, skidding on her knees and scooping up the poor cat. The grass had reached above her head now, hiding part of the moon.

"What happened to you?" Neoelle asked, stroking the terrified cat's head. A noise made Neoelle's hand freeze in mid stroke. It came from the direction that Ull had just come form.

"Nrow!" Ull hissed, flattening his ragged ears against his head.

"Shh! It's okay!" Neoelle soothed, rising to her feet carefully. She moved as quietly as possible down the path, trying to investigate the noise. She backed up and squinted at a break between the grass. It seemed to swirl with shadows. She took a slow, tentative step forward, trying to see what was in there. A pair of yellow eyes opened, staring straight at her. They seemed wide spread, and quite surprised to see her.

Then, Neoelle did what all ten year olds would do when presented with a pair of mysterious eyes staring at her from the shadows.

She ran away screaming.

"Oh my god!" she yelled, diving into another window, breaking it.

"Neoelle! That is the third window you have broken in this house!" Val scolded.

"And to make it worse, you knocked Juliet out again!" Shay shouted from the computer. Neoelle cast her eyes down at the unconscious girl before moving on.

"There was something out there! It attacked Ull!" Neoelle said, shaking with fear.

"Are you sure?" Val said, moving towards the window. Neoelle came up next to her shoulder.

"Yes! I saw it with my own eye!" she shouted, pointing at it to provide emphasis. "You see?" she said, pointing at the sky. A large form was suspended in the moonlight over the grassy plains. It stayed there for a moment, before dipping and zooming off into the sky.

"We need to be more careful. No one is leaving this house, got it?" Val said, walking over to a wall. She pushed on one of the flower designs in the wall paper. Pink bars slid down over every vent, door, and window.

"So we are stuck here for the next few days?" Shay asked, horrified.

"Yes. For the next 2 days, to be exact. That's plenty of time for everyone to get to know each other!" Val said cheerily. "Let's go have some brownies," she suggested, dragging Juliet's unconscious form into the kitchen. She didn't notice the death glares exchanged between Neoelle and Shay.

* * *

**Chapter done! **

**Yay!**

**Point out any spelling mistakes!**

**Feel free to complain about anything and everything!**

**Please!**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9!**

**Yay!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Marina sighed as the swirl of flowers, leaves, and music faded.

"Where are we?" Marshall asked, looking around. They were in another clearing, but this one was filled with towering pine trees and a light dusting of snow on the ground. Fat snow flakes drifted lazily through the air, as if they were bored and looking for fun.

"No idea. I was hoping that you were steering," Melodia said, shivering slightly in her metallic body suit.

"I chose this place," Marina said. "I need to check on someone."

"You mean Marcie, right?" Melodia asked.

"Yeah," Marina said. "We're right outside of the town." She pointed towards a neighborhood that sat, nestled in a valley.

"Do you want us to come with you?" Marshall asked.

"No, it's fine," Marina said. "You can leave if you want."

"Alright, let's go see a concert," Melodia said, slapping Marshall on the back so hard that he fell over. Melodia dragged him to his feet. "We'll be at the concert in Houston. Meet you there." With that, she and Marshall vanished.

Marina waited until she was sure that they were gone before she set out. She headed down the sloping hills that surrounded her hometown. She decided to walk, no fly on her BMX bike. It seemed better this way.

She reached the foot of the hill, where the outskirts of the town was, and entered the familiar streets. This was the housing area. She smiled when she saw a pair of simple bungalow houses, barely three feet apart, but separated by a picket fence. One house was surrounded by small shrubbery, with an unsual cherry tree in front. The one next to is had small rose bushes and a stone bench. Other than that, the houses were identical.

She pushed open the gate of the house on the left and walked up to the door. She left no footprints in the half inch of snow. She tried the door, which was locked. She went around to the bathroom window, which was broken and impossible to lock. She slid it open quietly, feeling like a burglar, and landed in the small, colorful bathroom. It had a foot stool in front of the sink, indicating that a young child used this bathroom. Marina walked out after closing the window and went down the hall.

She passed the master bedroom, where a beautiful woman with brown hair slept. A balding man was sitting next to her, reading a novel by the light of a bedside lamp. He looked up as if hearing a disturbance. Marina went to hide out of sight, but then remembered that the man couldn't see her. She continued down the hall into a large bedroom.

There was evidence that two people lived in that room. The walls were pink, and a desk was pushed against the wall next to the closet door. Two beds sat parallel to each other, divided by a nightstand. In one bed lay a little girl, who clearly took after her mother, with beautiful chestnut hair. Her left arm was wrapped in a pink cast, covered in signatures from her classmates. She slept soundly, smiling at whatever happy dream she was having. Marina could see, above the little girl's head, the golden sand of a dream. It showed the little girl and an older girls running around, playing what looked like tag.

Marina smiled at the happy dream, and frowned at the cast. She picked up a black marker and signed her name along the side of the cast. She then set it down, knocking a picture frame over. She caught it just before it hit the carpet. The noise caused the little girl to stir, but not awake. She rolled over, grumbling. Her dream did not change, though. Marina smiled and looked at the picture in the frame. It showed the little girl laughing with another girl, probably an older sister. They looked so happy.

The other bed was empty. The rainbow sheets were crisp and stiff, clearly showing that they hadn't been used in a long time. Marina sat down of the bed softly, smiling as she remembered all the nights that she would sleep in it. She saw a sheet of paper on the wall and stared at it with sadness. It showed the other girl from the photo, with her brown hair and blue eyes, with a caption that shouted the words "Missing Person". The rest of the details followed, that her name was Marina Merit, and the date that she had gone missing, which was about two years from this date. It said what she had been wearing at the time, a teal t-shirt and blue jeans with regular sneakers. She still wore that exact outfit, even now. It also said where she was last seen.

Marina was surprised to see her own missing poster. She had been declared dead a few months ago, and everyone had moved on except for her sister. Her sister still believed that she was alive and well. She had made up a theory that Marina had been kidnapped by aliens and was now ruling over them.

"You need to move on, Marcie," Marina whispered to the little girl. It was useless, since no one could see or hear her, but she still did it anyway. Marina watched her younger sister for a few second longer before moving on. The window above the empty bed was cracked, as always, so Marina pulled it open and slipped out the side of the house, closing it silently behind her. She was face to face with the next house. She nimbly hopped the white picket fence and looked in the next window. There was another bedroom, but this one was empty. Marina smiled when she saw the name "Kassie" written in wooden letters across the wall, naming the occupant of the room. She also smiled because she knew where the occupant was.

She walked for twenty minutes until she reached the huge aquarium that the town was famous for. It was closed, due to the fact that it was 7:00, but there were still some volunteers and workers finishing up inside. Marina walked in a made a beeline for the dolphin exhibit. There were three dolphins inside, all female. Two were zipping around, jumping out of the water happily, but the other was swimming around, slowly and sadly.

Marina hurried around, through the staff only door, and onto the wooden walkway that extended a fourth of the way into the enormous enclosure. She froze when she saw two volunteers get in the water with the dolphins. There was a dark skinned girl with close cropped black hair. She dived in noisily, and the two lively dolphins zoomed over and began to swim around her playfully.

"Hey Heather and Iris!" the girl exclaimed, greeting the two dolphins. They chirped back at her, their excitement causing the noise to turn into a demented chattering noise.

"I'm going to go and check on Azalea," the other person, a boy, said before dropping into the water as well. He swam over to the sad dolphin. One of the other dolphins followed him, but seemed to declare him to be boring and went back to the girl, who was now handing out tiny fish for te dolphins to eat.

"How is she?" the girl asked.

"Unhappy as always," the boy replied as he touched the dolphin. Azalea didn't respond. She just continued to swim slowly.

"Alex, I'm telling you that she still misses Marina," the girl said.

"I seriously doubt that," Alex replied. "Azalea is just an animal. She can't possibly know that Marina is gone."

"I think that she can," the girl argued. "Dolphins are quite intelligent, after all."

"Kassie, I have volunteered with these dolphins since I was a freshman," Alex said, annoyed. "That is two years. I know everything."

"If you know everything, then can you tell me where Marina is," Kassie said lightly. She froze, realizing what she had said. "Alex, I didn't mean-."

"I know what you meant, Kassie," Alex said. "And if I could, then I would tell you where she is, but no one has seen her since 9th grade, when she vanished after closing up the aquariam. She's dead. We all know that and have come to accept that."

"Except for me," Kassie said. "And Marcie. Marcie will never stop believing that her sister is alive until the day that she herself dies and joins her sister in heaven."

"So you admit that she is dead," Alex said.

"No, I didn't say that. I'm just saying that, based on the area that Marcie lives, she should live to be around 90, should nothing bad befall her such as homicide or disease. By that time, Marina would have passed. We would have too, unless we magically discover the secret to immortality," Kassie explained, throwing a ring for the dolphins.

"So we'll all be dead together," Alex mused. "Sounds alright to me."

"Yeah. I think that we have fed the dolphins enough," Kassie said. "And we have school tomorrow, and I'm going to guess that you didn't study for the test in math."

"You know me too well," Alex said as he climbed out of the water and offered Kassie a hand up.

"Thank you," Kassie said, accepting his hand as he hauled her onto the dock.

"Let's go," Alex said, and with that, Marina's two closest friends walked straight through her and into the staff only room to get changed. Marina was going to follow them out, but decided against it. She looked into the water and whistled loudly. Azalea immediately reacted, chirping joyously and rocketing towards the dock. She proceeded to jump out of the water and perform all sorts of tricks. She jumped out of the water, preformed many flips, and basically had a sugar attack for five minutes. Marina laughed and jumped into the water. Azalea went nuts, nudging up against Marina's face, making her laugh. Alex and Kassie walked past the glass of the exhibit, surprised to see the dolphin so happy all of the sudden.

"I bet Azalea hates one of us," Kassie commented, watching the dolphin.

"Or maybe the spirit of Marina has come to play with her," Alex scoffed, continuing past without a second glance. Marina heard them and froze. Azalea nudged her with concern.

"It's nothing," Marina murmured as Alex and Kassie left, locking the door and shutting out the lights behind them.

"It's nothing," she repeated sadly.

...

"Where are we?" Marshall shouted to Melodia over the painfully loud noise. They standing on an enormous, thumping speaker. Below them was a crowd of at least 5000 people, all rocking out to the deafening music.

"At that concert in Denver!" Melodia shouted back, bobbing her head to the music.

"I thought we were going to Houston!" Marshall yelled.

"We'll go there afterwards! Marina won't mind," Melodia called.

"Can I leave?" Marshall asked timidly. "Loud, mind numbing music really isn't my favorite thing." The song came to an end as the band prepared to start the next one.

"Alright!" Melodia said, slightly louder than normal due to the temporary deafness in her ear. "Just make sure that you are in Houston in half an hour."

"Okay," Marshall said, disappearing in a swirl of red and orange leaves. Melodia smiled as he left.

"Not everyone has my taste in music," she commented as the next song started.

And it wasn't just any song.

It was _the song._

It was the only song on the planet that Melodia hated, and that took a lot of effort. Melodia liked all types of songs, like pop, rock, punk rock, heavy metal, the blues, Beethoven, Mozart, opera, country, alternative country, swing music, love songs, dub-step, jazz, and even Celtic folk. This song, however, was simply horrible. Without thinking, she pulled on her huge rainbow head phones, jumped on her flying instrument, and flew away as fast as possible. She flew for at least twenty minutes.

"Oh great. Now where am I?" she said aloud, touching down. There were huge building with domes and columns. She could see something poking out above one of the buildings. She moved to her left in order to see it better.

It was Saint Peter's Basilica.

"I'm in the Vatican," Melodia said in surprise. "I must have teleported here on accident while flying." She walked through the street quickly and down a cobblestone path. She was practically surrounded by churches on her left and right. She smiled in recognition. She had been here for the ground breaking for St Peter's Basilica, and was still surprised to see it standing. She remembered how her parents and older sisters would always walk past the construction project with upturned noses, thinking of how dirty it was.

She sighed at the thought of her family. Her mom and dad were obsessed with their image, a trait that they passed down to their twin daughters. They were always going out to parties, leaving Melodia home to watch her younger brother Antioco

She smiled widely at the memory of that tiny little rascal. He was barely six when she had last seen him. With his dark black hair and tan skin, he would have grown up to be a heart breaker. He would never do that, though. He was much too gentle, always asking Melodia to take him to the carnivals and circuses that came to town. The bright lights and entertainment amused him, but what he truly loved was the music, a trait that he and Melodia both shared.

Melodia could vividly remember the last time she had seen her brother. They had been walking home from an especially wonderful carnival. They took a wrong turn and ended up in an alley, where they were confronted by a robber. He had demanded money, but Melodia didn't have a penny on her. The would-be robber didn't take that very well. He attacked them and stabbed Melodia in the chest. The coward then fled, horrified by the crime that he had committed.

And poor Antioco. He watched as his sister bled to death.

"It's okay. It doesn't hurt," Melodia had said, sitting with her back against the wall. "Here, come and lay down. I'll sing you a lullaby." And she did just that. Antioco fell asleep with his sweet little head on her lap after the final note was finished. Melodia stroked his hair until her eyes grew dark and her soul drifted from her body.

Melodia walked into one of the church's cemetaries. There was row after row of tombstones, each getting older and more weathered as they went. Melodia walked to the third to last row and looked at a group of tombstones.

They were for her family. Apparently, her mother and father had died rich and happy, and they passed their money down to their three remaining siblings. Her first sister squandered it and died homeless. Her second sister saved it and married a rich man, who murdered her for her money. Little Antioco died from tainted meat late in his years. The tombstones stated their dates of birth and dates of death in faded writing.

And then there was Melodia's tombstone. From her vantage point behind it, she could see all the buildings and alleys surrounding her family's final resting place. That included the alley where she had been murdered. Her blood was still deeply engrained in the stone.

She sighed and wondered what had possessed her to teleport back to a place that she lived in over 500 years ago.

_I must really miss them, deep down._

...

Marshall breathed a sigh as he emerged, alone, in front of a small house. His ears felt like they were bleeding. He had transported himself to the spot where his spirit life had begun: next to a house.

It was a simple house, with a small kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and living room. It was empty except for the essentials, like a bed and an oven. A withered old man sat on a rocking chair at the door, rocking back and forth with a quiet, rhythmic pattern. The man stopped when he saw Marshal.

"Ah, Daniel!" the man said, using Marshall's first name. "It is good to see you again, my boy."

"You too, sir," Marshall replied. His old mentor was an odd one. He could see Marshall, even though no other human can. He had once asked about it, but all his teacher did was smile and remind him that he was no longer a student, or a human for that matter.

"Would you like to come in and have some tea?" he asked, rising out of his rocking chair with a groan.

"Yes, sir. Would you like me to make it?" Marshall asked.

"No, no. It's fine. And stop with all of that 'sir' nonsense. I'm not that old," his tutor said.

"When did you move here, Mr. Walker?" Marshall asked as he followed his tutor into the house.

"Oh, I moved here a year ago," Mr. Walker said, seating Marshall at a table and entering the kitchen. "And don't start with that 'Mr.' business either."

"I am sorry sir-, I mean Mr. Wa-, I mean Walker," Marshall said, struggling.

"You really like calling me sir, don't you?" Walker asked.

Marshall nodded. "Yes sir, I mean-."

"It's fine. If you really want to call me 'sir', then you can," Walker said as he put a kettle on the stove.

"Thank you, sir," Marshall said with relief.

"You're welcome," Walker said. "Just remember that are ages aren't really that far apart."

"It is still a eight year gap, sir," Marshall reminded him.

"Yes, I know. I was twenty four when your parents hired me to tutor you, and then, a year after, you disappeared," Walker said. "And then you reappeared, but are only visible to me."

"That is correct, sir," Marshall confirmed as Walker set out two steaming cups of tea.

"And you stopped aging," Walker muttered. "I must confess that I am jealous."

"I'm sorry, sir," Marshall said immediately. "I would stop if I could, but I do not know how."

"That is alright, Daniel," Walker said. "Tell me, have you visited your parent's graves at all?"

"Yes sir," Marshall answered. "Every New Year, and on their birthdays and anniversary, as well as their death days."

"Good job boy," Walker said approvingly.

"Thank you, sir," Marshall replied, sipping his tea.

"And have you made many new friends among your 'group'," Walker asked.

"I believe so," Marshall said. "They are all very out going, though, but are all very kind to me."

"That is good. I am glad that you are continuing your life," Walker said, falling into a coughing fit. It took him several minutes to recover.

"Are you alright now, sir?" Marshall asked.

"Yes, of course," Walker said. "But my time will come eventually and then your last tie to your old life will be gone. Your family name and riches have died out, along with you."

"I know sir," Marshall said sadly, sipping his tea. They fell into a comfortable silence, which was interrupted by the shouting of Melodia and Marina.

"You let him go off on his own?" Marina was shouting.

"Yeah! He's fine! See?" Melodia replied, pointing to the doorway where Marshall and Walker were watching them.

"Oh! Hello Walker!" Marina said cheerily.

"How's it going?" Melodia asked.

"Hello girls," Walker said happily. "I am doing well, thank you."

"We've come to get Marshall. We're going to go to a safe house," Melodia explained.

"Safe house? Why?" Walker asked. He turned his eyes to Marshall. "What have you not told me?" he asked.

"It's nothing to worry about," Marina said, coming to Marshall's rescue. "There have been some minor threats towards one of the other spirits, but nothing major. We have decided to stay in groups for the time being for safety, just in case something happens."

"But we are safe, sir," Marshall said.

"Promise me that you will not cause any problems," Walker said.

"Him? Cause problems?" Melodia repeated in disbelief. "Marshall is the nicest, sweetest, most well behave boy I have ever met. You must have taught him well."

"Of course I did, Walker said, puffing out his chest. "Now, go my boy, and be safe."

"Thanks Dad-," Marshall froze at the slip of his tongue. "I mean sir."

"Goodbye," Walker said as the three spirits vanished. He felt himself begin to smile. He had practically raised Marshall as his tutor, and then continued to help him when he became a spirit. He saw Marshall as the son that he never had.

He just hoped that Marshall would stay safe.

* * *

**Chapter done!**

**Yay!**

**It is really long.**

**Point my errors!**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter X!**

**I still don't know what number it is.**

**I don't really care anymore.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Tianna sighed as she sat down in her room. It was down on of the dark, winding corridors of the enormous cave that Pitch called home. Her bedroom, however, was missing a wall and opened up to a cliff face that stood above an ocean. She smiled as she sat down on the outcropping that protruded from the cliff, watching as the sun dipped beyond the flat line of the ocean. A few lamps lit up in her colorful room.

Who said that a dark spirit couldn't like color.

"Hey sis," Tyler said, entering Tianna's room.

"Tyler, could you please try to knock?" Tianna asked with a sigh.

"Maybe next time," he replied. He always said that, and always failed to follow-up with that particular promise. "How do you think that the machine is coming along?" he asked, taking a seat next to her.

"It's fine," Tianna said. They fell into a slightly awkward silence. The sky darkened, but no moon or stars shined. There was too much fear and darkness here for that.

"Seems like a chill is coming in," Tyler commented unhappily as a particularly cold breeze brushed past them.

"You still hate Jack Frost, don't you," Tianna murmured.

"I can't help it," Tyler growled. "It was his fault that you died."

"But if anyone should hold a grudge, then it's me, not you," Tianna said.

"And you're telling me that you would prefer being a spirit, the spirit of the darker part of Halloween, instead of being a happy, healthy human?" Tyler asked.

"Well, it is nice sometimes," Tianna mumbled.

"How? How?" Tyler asked with a bark of laughter. "Every human on the planet despises our very existence. That is why we exist, and it's a poor existence at that."

"Well..." Tianna trailed off helplessly.

"It's okay Tianna," Tyler said. "Things will get better."

"I'm not so sure," Tianna said, her dual colored eyes filled with worry. They fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes, listening to the crashing of the waves far below where they were sitting.

"Well, I have a new task from Pitch," Tyler said, trying to restart the conversation again.

"That's interesting," Tianna murmured, only half listening.

"Don't you want to know what it's about?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah," Tianna said, now giving her full attention to her brother.

Tyler paused, trying to figure out how to best explain his task to her. Eventually, he decided to just be blunt with her.

"I have to go find the Grim Reaper," he said. Tianna looked at him with surprise.

"But everyone hates the Grim Reaper! Why do we need him?" she asked, remembering only the red, coal-like eyes of the Reaper.

"Well, he is tied to Difunto, both of them having to do with death, so Pitch probably wants to see if we can convince him to help us take down the Guardians," Tyler reasoned.

"I guess that makes sense," Tianna said. "But why do you have to do it?"

"Because, my ghosts can help me find him," Tyler said. "They may be dead, but their memory is long." The siblings fell silent again.

"Remember when we were ghosts?" Tianna asked dreamily. Tyler merely nodded.

On the night of Halloween, in 1955, Tianna had been trying to get her crazy black cat off of the roof. As she was just about to catch the fluffy thing, she slipped on some ice that had collected on the roof. She slipped and fell to her death. Tyler died exactly a year later while breaking up a fight in school. As he lay there, bleeding to death, a silky voice had asked him if he wanted to see his sister again. Tyler said yes, of course, and that he would do anything to see her again. Sure enough, he ended up sitting here, next to his sister, as forever young beings.

And it pretty much sucked.

"But now we are spirits," Tianna said dreamily.

"Yeah, of the holiday that we died. And we're the hated part," Tyler reminded her.

"Whatever," she said. Tyler got up and left so he could think about which ghost he wanted to summon. There were 5 very different ghosts, so he would have to chose carefully.

...

In a different section of the cavern was Pere and Difunto, practicing their sparring skills. Difunto nearly decapitated Pere with a powerful swing from his bone sword. His partner dodged out of the way easily, bringing his black whip down towards Difunto. He dodged with the speed and flexibility of a snake.

"Not bad!" Pere called out as they both landed on the stone ground. Instead of charging at Pere like he did before, Difunto waited in a crouch. Pere, noticing the change in battle style, paused before attacking. He ran towards Difunto brandishing the whip in front of himself. He continued to get closer and closer with no reaction from Difunto. Thirty yards. Then twenty. Now, only fifteen. Still no response.

_Oh well,_Pere thought as he closed the distance even further, now only five yards from Difunto.

And then, Difunto transformed into his 12 foot long-winged serpent form and shot forward, wrapping himself around Pere's legs and arms, successfully capturing him.

"Oof!" Pere exclaimed as he lost his balance and fell over. Difunto's snake head was only inches from Pere's. His tongue flicked out, tickling Pere's noise, and making him sneeze.

"Really? You had to sneeze on me?" Difunto asked, turning back into his human form.

"Not my fault," Pere said. "Sorry."

"It's fine. Don't worry," Difunto said.

"Thanks," Pere said, kissing his boyfriend.

"What's the plan now? Do you know?" Difunto asked as Pere helped him to his feet.

"Well, Pitch want's to find the _Grim Reaper_ for reasons that I don't even understand," Pere said, putting extra emphasis on the name.

"Why him?" Difunto asked.

"No idea. It's an unnecessary risk if you ask me," Pere said as they headed back to their room.

"You're probably right," Difunto said as he pushed the door open.

"I know, I know," Pere said, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend. "I'm always right, after all."

Difunto sighed contentedly, but something was still bothering him.

_Why would we need the Grim Reaper?_

...

Back in the main cavern of the Dark Cave, Pitch and Nobel Beast were finishing a very serious conversation with Erik. Or, Pitch was having a single sided screaming match with him while Nobel Beast stood back and watched.

"Erik, you can't keep goofing off like this!" Pitch screamed, terrifying the boy.

"I'm sorry," Erik muttered.

"Alright! That's all I wanted to hear! Now, both of you, get out of my sight!"Pitch ordered in a slightly hoarse voice.

"Of course, sir," Nobel Beast said, dragging Erik from the room.

"I'm sorry," Erik repeated again, in a daze.

"I told you that there'd be consequences is you screwed around on missions," Nobel Beast said, dragging Erik through the shadowy corridors.

"I won't do it again," Erik promised.

Nobel Beast merely sighed. "Yes, you will do it again, no matter how many times you promise. It is in your nature to do stuff like that."

"I know, I know," Erik mumbled.

"Do you know that what you did is wrong?" Nobel Beast asked, looking Erik dead in the eye.

"Yes," Erik said dejectedly.

"Good. Do you want to go watch a video about crying children?" Nobel Beast asked, knowing that it would cheer Erik up.

"OH! CAN WE! Yes please!" Erik said, darting into his room to get a box set.

"Let's just stick with the first one," Nobel Beast suggested.

"Okay! That one's my favorite anyway!" Erik said, putting the other tapes back into his room.

Nobel Beast sighed as he watched Erik, who was practically his little brother, laugh manically at the crying children.

Well, they weren't considered evil for nothing.

* * *

**Chapter done!**

**Point out my mistakes!**

**NOTE! I need a Grim Reaper! But there are rules:**

**No one can submit him if they have already submitted another OC.**

**The creator must have a legitimate account.**

**Must be a male OC, preferably with red eyes.**

**No exceptions, except for eye color.**

**Maybe.**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit.**


	11. Chapter 11

**New Chapter!**

**Yay!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Eira, Stella, and Aurora re-entered their wonderful, cliff side bungalow.

"Ah, home sweet home," Eira said as she pushed open the door.

"I'm glad that we're back," Aurora said.

"Yeah. What's for dinner?" Stella asked.

"Just leftovers," Eira said. "Heat up whatever you like."

"Do we still have spaghetti?" Stella asked, heading to the kitchen. She opened the fridge and felt along the lids of the Tupperware, where the Braille cards were located.

"It's on the top shelf!" Eira directed. "Aurora, can you please help Stella?"

"Why can't you?" Aurora asked dully.

"Because I need to go and feed the pets," Eira said as she lifted up a large basket. "You know, the ones that you are supposed to feed, but I always end up feeding them instead?"

"Oh yeah. Those pets," Aurora said, getting up and heading into the small kitchen.

"Thank you Aurora!" Eira called before exiting the house. She closed the door quickly behind her and headed into the rapidly darkening forest. The heavy basket weighed her down, but by now she was used to it. She continued to walk, following an invisible but well known path. Eventually, she emerged at a rocky clearing. She let out a loud whistle. At first, she was met only by silence. A few seconds passed, and she heard the sound of snapping twigs behind her.

She turned to see an enormous wild boar come lumbering out of the woods. It was as tall as Eira, with wispy brown fur and huge white tusks, at least a foot long. It caught sight of her and began to gallop towards her.

"Mochyn! There you are, my sweet little snuggly-poo," Eira cooed, throwing her arms around the beast. It began to growl, but it wasn't an angry growl. It sounded more like a cat purr.

The giant boar was purring.

"Good boy Mochy!" Eira praised, scratching the boar behind the ear. It began to thump its leg like a dog. It snorted at her, sniffing at the enormous basket around her arm. Eira pulled out something that looked like a leaf burrito, filled with a wide assortment of bugs. She tossed it to Mochy, who sniffed at it eagerly before tearing rabidly through the wrap.

A soft snuffling and nudging at Eira's arm caused her to turn around: Cedar was trying to eat Eira's long, black hair.

"No, no, no," she scolded gently, reaching into the basket again and pulling out a bowl filled with acorns, apples, persimmons, peas, all on top of a mound of dried hay. Cedar's eyes widened with shock and delight as he buried his face enthusiastically into the bowl. His enormous antlers gouged into the ground as he munched away on the food.

"It's your turn now!" Eira called out into the now black forest. A single firefly drifted over, lazily blinking his greenish-yellow light. More of the fireflies began to flood the stoney clearing, lighting it up like a Christmas tree.

"Here you go, little guys," she murmured, throwing what looked like silvery dust at the fireflies. It was actually pollen, mixed with some water. Fireflies could live 2-3 weeks on just a drop of water. The fireflies went crazy for the dust, forming a giant swirling vortex around Eira as they scrambled to collect pollen. Eira laughed and threw another handful, causing the fireflies to zoom to the new food.

The fireflies belonged to Aurora. They were her personal flock, which she loved and adored. She just didn't like feeding them. Aurora used them as a mode of transport, flying on a mob of them.

"And, last but not least," Eira said, turning to her left, peering at the base of an ancient, gnarled oak tree. "Come here, Carlos," she said gently.

The most bizarre creature emerged from the tree. It was orange and see through, appearing to be made of some sort of mist or gas. It hopped over carefully, it's form shifting, until it reached Eira, where it stopped and showed it's true form.

It was a little gas bunny, barely bigger than a baby. It sniffled at the hem of Eira's. She reached into her basket and pulled out the last object: two gas cylinders taped together, with a tube coming off the tops of both of them. She set it down with extreme caution, and the bunny hopped over and enveloped the two rubber tubes. Eira turned the handles on both of the canisters, causing a hissing noise. Other than that, nothing appeared to happen. Actually, pure hydrogen and helium were being released from the canisters and into the bunny. It began to swell in size until it grew to the height of a small dog.

The bunny raced around happily after ingesting it's fill of gas. Eira sighed and shut off the hydrogen canister, and then struggled to close the helium one. It took her several minutes. Once the hissing noise finally stopped, she let out a sigh.

"Thank goodness," she said, and then froze. Her voice was now extremely high. That, mixed with her incredibly heavy Welsh accent, made for a truly strange combination. She began to laugh, the high-pitched sound making her laugh more. It lasted for a total of about 10 seconds, but that was enough to set Eira off for seven total minutes. Once she had finally straightened up, she had to be supported by Cedar.

"Time for me to go," she hiccupped, her pale face now flushed. The animals seemed disappointed, almost sad. They moved to escort her to the edge of the clearing when Carlos the gas bunny froze and spun around, letting out an angry, rabbit-sized growl. The Mochyn reeted angrily and charged into the brush.

"Mochy!" Eira shouted, chasing after the wild boar. She ran through a thin strip of dark forest until she reached the edge of the cliff. Mochy was poised on the edge, his fur puffed out with rage. Eira gasped when she saw a huge..._ thing_ flying away. Eira backed away from the edge as the thing vanished.

...

Eira burst in through the cabin doors, almost tripping.

"Hey Eira. That took a lot longer than usual," Stella said, cautiously eating from a Chinese take-out box. She was doing well for someone who can't see.

"Are you okay Eira? You look like you've seen a ghost," Aurora muttered.

"No, I'm fine," Eira lied, sitting down. She wanted to tell Aurora what happened, but she didn't want Stella to overhear it. So Eira did what she had to.

She used used British Sign Language to tell Aurora what had happened, all while chatting with Stella. Once she had finished telling Aurora the story about the mysterious figure that she and the animals say, she headed into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of ale.

"Oh, can I have some?" Stella asked, smelling the malted barley.

"No, only I am allowed to drink it," Eira said, taking a sip.

"Why's that?" Aurora asked.

"Where I come from, it was legal," Eira said, remembering the beautiful cottage where she used to live, back in 1400's. She frowned and shuddered as one memory led to another, eventually leading to the last one of her human life: the cold, dark snow storm that had taken her from her happy life and dragged her out of her young body, transforming her into the over-shadowed Guardian of Yuletide.

"When I was around, as in human, I couldn't tolerate alcohol, especially in those disgustingly bitter liquids," Stella said. She and her family had visited an isolated village in Mongolia when Stella had contracted meningitis. She survived, but was blinded by the high fever. She had then returned to the United States, being dubbed a "Miracle Survivor", only to tragically die when she fell down a well while helping a drowning stranger.

"I just don't like alcohol," Aurora muttered. "It reminds me of the Church." Aurora harbored a grudge towards the Church. She didn't hate them, but she didn't particularly like them. When she had been human, during the Middle Ages, she had no influences of women around her. Her mother had died in labor, and her father and elder brother were both knights, and saw to it that Aurora was well educated. She decided to build a school to teach women of all ages. The Church had found out, and excommunicated her. That didn't stop her, however. She built her school and taught her students, and the Church found out, accused her of being a servant of the Devil, and did the natural thing that the Church tended to do at that time: they hung her from a post with a bag over her head, where the townspeople beat her severely and then _left her there._ She eventually died from lack of oxygen or shock. She still didn't know which it was.

"So, no drinking for you two then," Eira said, taking a sip of the ale. "Now, who wants to play Alquerques?"

"Oh! I do!" Stella exclaimed happily. Eira smiled and pulled out the board. Alquerques was the ancestor of checkers, and had almost the same rules.

"Okay, I'll play Stella, and then the winner will play Aurora," Eira said, setting up the pieces. She gave Stella the smooth white pieces, while she used the bumpy black ones. Their game took no time at all. Stella was a master at it, easily memorizing where each of the pieces were. She destroyed Eira with ease.

"What's the record now?" Stella asked cheekily.

"482 to 31," Eira said regretfully. "You are as good as always, my young adversary."

"Thank you!" Stella beamed. "Now, it gets difficult," she muttered with a grin, turning her sightless eyes to Aurora.

"I believe that your record against Aurora is 218-215," Eira said. "With you in favor, Stella."

"Fudge, this is going to be just as hard as always, isn't it?" Stella asked.

"I'm sorry," Aurora muttered as she switched places with Eira at the board.

"Let's begin," Stella said after they reset the pieces.

The following Alquerques game lasted an hour and a half.

"Cabbage! You beat me!" Stella exclaimed, almost swiping all the pieces off of the board. Eira caught her arm easily.

"Now now Stella. Don't be a sore loser," Eira scolded.

"Sorry Eira," Stella said bashfully.

"Now apologize to your sister," Eira ordered, and then froze. "I mean, to Aurora."

Stella smiled at Eira's mistake. "I think that the first one is a little more fitting, don't you?" She turned to Aurora with a wide grin. "Sorry _sis,_" she said.

Aurora allowed herself to smile softly. "That's okay Stella."

Eira smiled at the two girls. They were like a family: Eira was the eldest sister, watching out for Stella and Aurora. Aurora was the middle child, who was close to Eira and Stella, and Stella was the youngest, looking up to Eira and being best friends with Aurora.

She just hoped that they would be able to stay friends forever, because that's how long they would live.

* * *

**Chapter done!**

**Yay!**

**Point out my mistakes!**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 6 or something.**

**I honestly have no idea.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Difunto sighed as he opened his eyes. He was in his bed, and was now wondering what had woken him. Then he realized what had happened: Pere had rolled over and slapped him in the face. Difunto let out a sigh as he glanced at his alarm clock, which now read 8:54. In the morning.

Time for revenge.

Difunto began to nudge Pere on the arm repeatedly until he woke up.

"Huh? What's going on?" he asked drowsily.

"You woke me up," Difunto complained. "On the one day that I don't have somewhere to be."

"Oh, sorry," Pere muttered. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and a sly smile spread across his face. "I know how to make it up to you."

"Oh, really?" Difunto asked as Pere crawled up until he was only an inch from his face.

"Yeah," he whispered into his boyfriends ear, sending chills through his body. Difunto rolled over so he was on top of Pere, and kissed him, a smile spreading across his face.

This could be a very fun morning.

A knock at the door interrupted them, and Tyler walked in, looking at a clipboard. "Hey Difunto, we have a mission for..." he trailed off, looking up. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry. I'll come back."

"No, it's fine," Difunto said, laying back on his side of the bed. "Moment gone."

"I am so sorry," Tyler apologised again.

"It's fine," Pere sighed.

"What's the mission?" Difunto asked.

"We need to find your cousin," Tyler said. "My ghosts have found his "home", if you can even call it that. They can't go in, though."

"Do we really need him?" Pere asked.

"Not really," Tyler admitted. "At least, not right now, but there is a chance that we could. If the Guardians decide to ally with the other holidays, then they would figure out our plan fairly quickly. It wouldn't hurt to have an extra member."

"He's not going to join us unless it helps him meet his own goal," Difunto said.

"We might have that goal," Tyler said with a smile. "At the very least, we need you to convince him not to join with the enemy."

"Alright, fine," Difunto said. "When do I leave."

"As soon as possible," Tyler said. "9:30 at the latest."

"Fine," Difunto said. "I'll meet you and your ghost at the main cavern at 9:25."

"Okay," Tyler said, hurrying out of the room. "Again, I'm really sorry." He practically slammed the door shut behind himself, and more apologise could be heard.

"I suppose you'll be going now?" Pere asked.

"I don't need to be anywhere for about 20 minutes," Difunto purred, causing Pere to grin and pull him in for another kiss.

...

9:25.

"There you are," Tyler said as he watched Difunto emerged from the shadows.

"Here I am," he replied. "So which ghost am I following?" he asked curiously. It always fascinated him to see the many different ghosts that Tyler could summon and control.

"Just a random ghost," Tyler said, sitting down on the ground. He held out his hand, as if holding an invisible orange. His palm began to glow, the light forming a blueish-white sphere in his hand. He stood up and tossed the sphere onto the ground, where it expanded upward, taking the form of a man.

A tall man, over 6 feet, appeared. He wore and very old style of suit, with a top hat. His eyes showed a lifetime of work and stress.

"Hello," the man rasped.

"That's Abraham Lincoln," Difunto stuttered, taken entirely by surprise.

"Cool," Tyler said, observing the 16th President of the United States. "Hello Mr. President! You are dead!"

"Was it Booth?" Lincoln asked immediately. The two boys nodded their heads. "I knew we should have gone to a different theatre."

"I'm really sorry that you're dead," Difunto said. At the sound of his voice, the ghost spun around.

"I remember you," he muttered. "You comforted me when I was dying."

"Yeah, that's my job," Difunto said.

"We're looking for the guy that came afterwards," Tyler said. "The guy who took you to the afterlife."

Lincoln nodded. "Yes. I can feel myself being pulled there again, like someone is calling me home."

"Well, I need you to lead my friend here to him, and then I'll return you to your family," Tyler promised.

"Okay, if I must," Lincoln said, turning to Difunto. "Whenever you are ready to go."

Difunto nodded, and then transformed into his winged serpent form. The former president looked at him with moderate surprise.

"Is this a natural thing for you?" Lincoln asked. Difunto nodded. "Great, just great."

"Lead the way, sir," Difunto said, showing respect for the formal president.

"Of course," he said, transforming into a small sphere and zooming out of an opening in the cliff, exiting above the sea. Difunto followed him, zipping and spinning through the air on his narrow wings.

"And you have wings," the President said with a sigh. "Sadly, that doesn't surprise me in the slightest." Difunto let out a laugh, which sounded like a rolling hiss. They flew for hours in a comfortable silence, until they came across land.

Or, to be more specific, another continent.

"Is this Europe?" Lincoln asked, awed.

"Yeah," Difunto said. "England to be specific." The boy's voice held a hint of unsureness,which Lincoln picked up in a flash.

"Is something bothering you, son?" he asked.

"Well, I'm just a little worried that my guide has no idea where he is going," Difunto joked.

"Anything else on your mind?" he asked as they passed over a city.

"No," he said, looking down on the buildings beneath them. "What do you know? It's London." He said this with a hint of malice.

"Alright boy, now I know something is wrong," Lincoln said. "Is it the British that bug you?"

"What? No, of course not! I don't hate anyone," Difunto defended. He sighed. "I just hate to see what humans have done to this world. That's one of the reasons that I work with Pitch. It's to stop all of this." He gestured with his tail, towards the signs of pollution and habitat destruction around London.

"Well, why don't you put a stop to it on your own?" Lincoln asked.

"I don't know how," Difunto admitted as they turned north, leaving London's lights behind them.

"It's easy," Lincoln said. "Just get rid of your enemies."

"What better way than to get rid of them all?" Difunto asked.

"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?" Lincoln quoted. "That's something that I said when I was alive."

Difunto narrowed his snake eyes, thinking about what the sphere/President had said.

"It appears that we have arrived at our destination," Difunto said as he landed in a pine forest, turning back into his human form as he did so. Lincoln returned to his original ghostly appearance.

"It's time for me to return to Mary and my boys," Lincoln said as he began to fade. He turned and pointed towards the edge of the woods, where it appeared to open up to a clearing. "That's where the pull of Death is, for lack of a better word. I do hope that you accomplish what you wish to." And with that, he was gone, returning to the afterlife. Difunto smiled and headed towards the clearing.

He was in the Highgate cemetery, twenty minutes outside of London. It was a very secluded graveyard, in the middle of a forest. That was probably why the Grim Reaper liked it so much here.

He quickly walked through the mist and under one of the arches, which, like the rest of the cemetary, was grey and greening with moss. Massive amounts of vegetation gave the arch the appearance of having voluminous hair. Following the path, he passed graves, most of which he didn't know. The only ones that he was familiar with were in the far Western section, where family of Charles Dickens lay, as well as the final resting place of Adam Worth, the possible inspiration of the Sherlock Holmes villain, Professor Moriarty. As he headed through the cemetary, the mist thickened, as if trying to trick him into losing his way. He quickly made his way towards the Circle of Lebanon, which was the oldest and, in his opinion, the most beautiful part of the entire graveyard.

It was like someone cut an enormous ring out of the ground. The inner walls of the ring held tombs and vaults on either side, decorated beautifully with arches and names of the occupants. The center of the ring, which stood on a platform in the center of the ring held the enormous Cedar of Lebanon, which towered up high and mighty above his head.

Difunto jumped down to where all of the vaults were. He then walked to the inner wall and jumped up, landing on the elevated ground, nearly tripping on an enormous tree root in the process. He could sense the Grim Reaper on the other side of the tree. He quietly made his way around, not wanting to disturb him. He caught a glimpse of the Reaper, but it wasn't much. Just a figure in a long, black hooded robe, sitting cross-legged against the tree, an enormous black scythe laying across his lap.

A large crack made him realize that he had just crushed a twig under foot. The figure looked over and stood up quickly.

"Hello?" Difunto asked timidly.

"Hey Difunto," the hooded figure replied.

"It is you," he said, breathing out a sigh. "Please take that hood off, Grim. It's really creepy."

The figure smiled and removed his hood, revealing a boy, appearing to be in his later teens, with bone white hair and brilliant red eyes.

"Sorry about that, kid," he said, jamming the scythe into the ground so it stood on its own. "So how are you doing?"

"Pretty well," Difunto said, a grin spreading across his face. Grim caught a sight of it.

"Things going good with Pere, I see," a smirk spreading across Grim's face as he clapped Difunto on the shoulder. "I'm glad that you are enjoying it."

"Yeah, we're both really..." Difunto paused, choosing hs next word with extreme caution, "enjoying our existence."

"That's good," Grim said. "So, what brings you to Highgate Cemetery?"

"Just a friendly visit," Difunto said casually.

Grim sighed, and then spoke. "Don't lie to me. You had your friend Tyler use a ghost to find me."

"Yeah. Sorry," Difunto muttered.

"It's fine," Grim said, ruffling Difunto's short brown hair. "Seriously though. Why are you here?"

Difunto shuffled nervously, unsure of what to say. "Pitch sent me," he admitted with a sigh. "He wants to know where your allegiance lies."

"God, you sided with that stupid man? He doesn't deserve to call himself the Nightmare King," Grim said. "Think of it this way: I have no reason to side with the Guardians, or with Pitch, besides some minor connections, such as yourself."

"Thanks," Difunto said, glum at the thought of being written off as a "minor connection".

"No offence kid, but it's true," Grim said with a grin. The grin quickly vanished as he continued. "There are only a few of the "lesser" holidays that I know..."

"And?" Difunto prompted as Grim trailed off.

"Well, I could join them, but I don't mix well with one of their members," Grim muttered.

"Yeah, I can see how that wouldn't work," Difunto said, catching on to who his friend was referring to.

"Just tell your "Nightmare King" that I'm not currently for or against anyone," Grim said.

"But it could change, couldn't it?" Difunto asked.

"Oh yes," Grim said, narrowing his eyes. "It most definitely could."

...

"Is that all that he said?" Pitch asked Difunto, who had returned just a few minutes ago with news from the Grim Reaper.

"Yes sir," Difunto said honestly. The shadowy man studied him for a moment before sighing.

"I suppose that's all we're going to get," Pitch said with a sigh.

"With all due respect, sir, I don't think that we need to involve him," Difunto said honestly.

"I know that," Pitch snapped. "Another member can never hurt, especially one with his kind of skill set."

"There is still a chance that he may join us," Difunto reminded him. "Or even just help us out a little."

Pitch nodded and motioned that Difunto could go. Once he was alone, the Nightmare King got thinking of how he could get the Grim Reaper on his side, even if was only to take out one holiday, maybe two.

A plan, a perfect plan, began to form in his mind, and an evil grin crept across his face.

_Perfect._

* * *

**Chapter done!**

**Yay!**

**Point out my spelling mistakes.**

**And, I have broken my hand, unfortunately.**

**Why does this matter?**

**Because typing will be slowed immensely, due to its brokenness.**

**I apologise for the inconvenience, and I hope that you understand.**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter!**

**Yay!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Jess held her tongue and chewed her gum as she pushed open the door into her small house. It basically looked like a studio apartment with four doors: one entrance, one to the bathroom, and one to a closet/laundry room. Everything else, including the bed, couch, television, and kitchen were all merged into one giant room.

"Very...interesting," Skywalker said as he entered. He walked over to the couch, investigating what looked like a small fluffy pillow.

This pillow also appeared to be breathing. And then it lifted its head and yapped at him.

Either he was hallucinating, or that was some pillow that Jess had.

Or, you know, it could just be a dog.

He soke after deciding that the breathing pillow was a dog. "Nice dog."

Jess glanced over at him from the refrigerator, which she was now rummaging through. "Thanks. His name is Pompom."

"Pompom the Pomeranian," Skywalker muttered as the dog stood up on the couch, displaying its tiny awesomeness. It was tan, with deep brown eyes. It had enormous presence, despite its small stature.

"Do you want something to drink?" Jess asked. "I've got milk, chocolate milk, water, and orange juice."

"Orange juice is fine," Skywalker said as he continued to examine the dog.

"Why not milk?" Jess asked as she poured out two glasses, one of orange juice and one of milk. She handed the orange juice to him and sat on the couch.

"I'm allergic to dairy," he said, finally sitting down. Pompom crawled onto his lap and began to lick his face. He tried vainly to fight off the little creature, but to no avail. He quickly set down his cup and began to stroke the little beast.

"He really likes you," Jess laughed, setting down her own untouched glass and pried the dog off of Skywalker.

"I can see that," he replied, wiping dog drool off of his face.

"Sorry about that," Jess said, placing the dog on the arm rest next to her. This apparently was a favorite spot, because Pompom settled down right away, looking quite content.

"No problem," Skywalker replied. They fell into a slightly awkward silence, which Jess eventually broke.

"So, your allergic to dairy?" she asked.

"Yeah," Skywalker said, recognising the attempt to start a conversation. "I've been allergic forever."

"Really? What was your life like before becoming a... what are we called exactly?" Jess asked.

"I would say immortal beings," Skywalker said. "And for me its simple: My mom and dad were photographers, who traveled the world, went skydiving, rock climbing, and scuba diving. And they took me along for the ride, all around the world."

"Wow," Jess said, impressed. "is that why you know so many languages?"

"Yeah. And that's how I got Ebony," Skywalker said with a smile

"Who and/or what is Ebony?" Jess inquired, having never heard the name before.

"Why, she's just outside! I'll go get her," Skywalker said, getting up from the couch.

Jess followed him, trying to stutter out some sort of legible question.

"Here she is," Skywalker said, pulling the door open. Outside was a massive tiger, black with silver stripes, and fiery lavender eyes.

"OH MY GOD!" Jess screamed, her gum falling out of her mouth. "Why didn't you warn me!?" Her face was pale. Pompom ran over and stood between his owner and the tiger. Then, he seemed to realize how outmatched he was and proceeded to run away, hiding under the bed, nothing but his brown feathery tail sticking out.

"I wanted to scare you," Skywalker said simply.

"You succeeded," she murmured. He glanced at her, hearing the change in her voice. She seemed fine, just little shaken up.

"This is Ebony," he said, walking up to the tiger. Ebony rubbed her head against his black pants. "I have a telepathic German channel with her."

"Oh really? What's she saying?" Jess asked faintly.

"She says that she thinks you're nice, and that you're about to pass out," Skywalker said. A thunk behind proved Ebony's thoughts to be correct.

Skywalker sighed and walked over to Jess, picking her up and setting her onto the couch. Ebony followed him inside and began to sniff around the bed where Pompom hid.

_Can I eat this?_ she asked in German, the only language she knew.

_No! You can't. Be nice to it. Its name is Pompom_, Skywalker replied in the same way.

With some grumbling, the tiger complied. She reached under the bed with one of her enormous paws and scooped the terrified dog out from underneath. Pompom froze, as if accepting his inevitable fate. Instead of eating him, Ebony began to lick him. He seemed to realize that his life had been spared, so he turned around and began to lick Ebony's face, his tail waggling.

Skywalker watched them and laughed softly. Then, he looked back at Jess. When she passed out, her gum got into her long brown hair. It was only by her cheek, but it was in there. Skywalker would have to cut it out.

Luckily for Jess, Skywalker knew how to cut hair.

Knowing how much she would complain when conscious, Skywalker decided to cut it now. With confident snips, he removed the gum, giving Jess side bangs in the process. Once he was finished, he shook her awake.

"There was a tiger!" she shouted as she was jolted awake. She flailed her arms, smacking Skywalker several times.

"Yes, there was a tiger. It's okay now, look," he pointed over to where Ebony was now cuddling with Pompom.

"Okay. Okay," Jess said, trembling. Skywalker sighed.

"Come on," he said, pulling her to her feet.

"What are we doing?" she asked.

"You're going to say hello to Ebony," Skywalker said, holding Jess's shoulders as he pushed her towards the giant cat.

"No, no, no," she began to stutter, but they were already right in front of the tiger. "Hello," she muttered shakily.

_She's very pretty_, Ebony commented as she rose to her feet, sniffing Jess. _And she smells nice. Why haven't I met her earlier? And look at her eyes! They change color with her emotions! They're yellow now. Poor thing must be scared. _

_Well, I did just present her with a giant tiger,_ Skywalker said.

"What happened to my hair?" she asked, noticing the bangs for the first time. Her eyes changed to greenish-yellow, which indicated a relaxed state, mixed with some confusion.

"When you screamed, you accidentally spat out your gum, and then you passed out onto it," Skywalker explained.

"Really?" she asked. She thought about it for a second. "Yeah, that would make sense."

"And I cut it out while you were unconscious. I hope you don't find that weird," Skywalker said, slightly nervous.

"No, I think it looks nice," Jess said, looking at it in a wall mirror.

_You should tell her how you really feel,_ Ebony chided as she went back over to Pompom.

_I don't feel anything towards her!_ Skywalker defended in angry German.

_Dummkoph,_ she said. _Idiot. Don't lie to me. I can always tell._

_I don't have to do anything. It's not like you can tell her,_ Skywalker thought triumphantly. Ebony growled and jumped to her feet, soaring across the room and tackling Skywalker to the ground.

"Hey Skywalker, are you allergic to anything? Other than dairy, I mean. I'm going to make some food..." Jess trailed off when she saw the boy pinned beneath the tiger.

"I'm a vegetarian," he said casually.

"Okay then," she said, turning around and walking back into the kitchen part of the room, ignoring the weird scene that was going on in her livingroom.

_Get off of me!_ Skywalker said angrily.

_No! Not until you admit that you like her! _Ebony growled. She settled into a comfortable position on top of Skywalker, sending a clear message: she wasn't going anywhere.

"Does Ebony want something to eat?" Jess asked as she set down a bowl of dog food for Pompom.

_Oh! I want meat!_ Ebony said excitedly, her tail waving.

"She says that she'd like some meat," Skywalker groaned.

"I should have guessed," Jess said as she put a something frozen into the oven to defrost. "Why is she on top of you?"

"We're having an argument," he said. "It's okay. Once she smells the meat, she should forget about it."

"What's the argument about?" Jess asked.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing!" he said a little too quickly. Jess's eyebrows rose and an evil smirk spread across her face.

"I think you should tell me," Jess said, sitting down on the single step next to him. His back was on the step, the pressure uncomfortable on his folded up wings.

"What?" he shouted.

"You heard me," Jess said smiling. Pompom ran over, having finished his food. He began to lick Skywalkers face.

"Argh! Get him away!" Skywalker said, turning his face. His arms were pinned underneath Ebony.

"No way," Jess laughed. "Not until you tell me."

_Ebony, get off,_ Skywalker said.

_No,_ she said. _Not until you tell her, or I get meat._

Skywalker decided to try another tactic.

"Jess, please get her off," Skywalker said, pleading in his voice.

"Why? What's so bad about this argument?" Jess asked.

"Nothing really. The more pressing matter are the bones that Ebony broke when she tackled me."

"What?" Jess asked, alarmed.

"Well, she is about 450 pounds, and she did tackle me, and I did land on this step, so I'm assuming that the crunching noises that followed were my bones," Skywalker explained. "So now, _señorita_, I would appreciate it if you could get her off of me."

"Yes! Sorry," Jess said, running to the oven and pulling out an entire turkey. "Here kitty-kitty!" she called, setting down the half-baked turkey. Ebony jumped up and began to devour it. Pompom ran up and began to eat as well, copying Ebony.

"Thank you," Skywalker said as Jess helped him to his feet.

"Are you alright?" she asked, her eyes blue with concern.

"Yeah. I actually lied to get you to help me," he said. At once, Ebony and Jess gave him very cold looks. "Please don't kill me!" he said.

"We won't," Jess promised grudgingly. "At least, not yet."

...

They sat down for a very awkward dinner. Ebony and Pompom were underneath the table while Jess and Skywalker at some soup. They finished up quickly, and Skywalker washed up the dishes, hoping to stay any remaining anger that Jess or Ebony might have towards him. Luckily, they seemed to be content now.

"So, you want to watch a movie?" Jess asked as she flopped back onto the couch.

"Sure, why not? What have you got?" Skywalker asked as he stepped over Ebony and sat down next to Jess. Immediately, Ebony got up and began to climb onto the couch. Skywalker tried to push her off, but to no avail.

"It's fine," Jess said as the two of them were squashed against the arm rest by the tiger. Jess went to stand up, but Pompom, who seemed to be working with Ebony, quickly jumped onto her lap, laying down happily. Ebony rested her head on Skywalker's lap.

"I guess we're stuck here," Skywalker muttered, looking angrily at Ebony.

"That's fine. We'll just watch whatever I left in the DVD player," Jess said, grabbing the remote off of the side table. She flipped on the TV.

"No way," Skywalker muttered as the screen lit up. "The Godfather?"

"Yeah. It's my favorite movie," Jess said, slightly embarrassed.

"Mine too," Skywalker said. He could feel Ebony beginning to purr happily.

He decided not to comment. They all watched the best movie in the universe together. Jess, being the kind of person that she is, fell asleep near the end.

_Goodnight Titus_, Ebony thought with a smirk, using Skywalker's real name. She and Pompom got up and went over to the bed. They quickly pulled off all of the blankets and settled on the bed.

Skywalker sighed when he realized that Jess had fallen asleep on his shoulder. He remained very still, not wanting to disturb her, and quickly fell asleep.

Ebony looked up, her purple eyes meeting light pink ones. She lay her head down, sensing no threat from the outdoor intruder.

* * *

**Chapter done!**

**Yay!**

**Point out my errors!**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit**


	14. Chapter 14

**New Chapter!**

**Yay!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Happy sat in a tree quietly. Below her slept Goss, slung across an enormous branch, and Eve, who had fallen off of her original spot and was now precariously resting on a mound of interwoven leafy twigs, which her long black hair had tangled in. It wasn't much to stop her from a fall to the hard forest ground, but apparently it was enough. Besides, Goss's giant goose was sleeping at the base of the tree, and would probably catch her if she fell.

Probably.

Happy sighed. The meeting had separated out yesterday. She could already imagine all the shenanigans that the others had gotten into. April, Zack, and Carter probably destroyed something or the other with a ridiculously over thought prank. Shay probably showed Juliet and Val exactly what a "lemon story" is, ruining their innocence. Neoelle would have showed up some time afterwards, and hopefully her innocence would be spared. Happy knew that she had no reason to worry about Marshall, Melodia, and Marina. Those three were good kids. She just hoped that Marshall was coping well with his new responsibilities. Happy didn't have to worry about Stella either, especially since she had Aurora and Eira, who acted like an older sister and a mother respectively.

She was really worried about Jess and Skywalker, but then again, she had paired them up intentionally. She smiled, imagining what they could possibly have done. She glanced towards the horizon, where the sun was now creeping up. She would let the others wake up on their own time.

She glanced over to the V in the tree where New Years was nestled, his little head mushed against one of the branches. The wind picked up, causing the tree to sway. Luckily, she had been smart enough to secure the pack that New Years now rested in. Something nudged against her back. She turned to see a small iridescent hummingbird hovering next to her. She watched it, transfixed, until she noticed the scroll tied to it. She realized that it must be one of the Tooth Fairy's minions, the Minifairies.

With shaky hands, she removed the note and opened it. In small, cramped handwriting was the note that she had been waiting for.

_Dear Holiday,_

_We have discussed with Man in Moon, and I decided to invite you to my workshop. We have decided to meet with you all at your council spot, which the Man in the Moon told us about, today at 9 at night. We will be transporting you all in waves, which you all will have to decide on your own. Your people will be receiving this letter after you do._

_Good day to you, and looking forward to seeing you,_

_North._

Happy stared at the letter, hurried down the tree and shook Goss and Eve awake, telling them the news. Far away, the others were receiving the same letter, delivered by small sand boats, walking eggs, or miniature hummingbirds. They were screaming with happiness and immediately headed to the meeting spot, chattering about the Guardians.

All except Stella and her group. She, Eira, and Aurora had gotten a message from Val and Neoelle, telling them of the other group. They were the closest, so Val requested that Eira's group go and tell the other group just what had happened. They arrived at the spot where the other group was supposed to meet them, only to discover that they had gone on ahead, leaving behind a girl named Sparks to tell them.

"Sorry," the black-haired girl said after explaining her groups absence.

"No problem," Eira said, rubbing her temples. "We might get left behind, though, because we're going to end up late."

"How about you two go on? I can always catch up," Sparks said.

"No, that would be wrong," Eira muttered. "You can't be left alone."

"I can keep her company," Stella offered. "We know each other pretty well, and we can teleport to the meeting point."

Eira looked at her before nodding in agreement. "Fine, just don't be late." With that, Eira and Aurora flew off.

"So, any word from Grim yet?" Sparks asked the second the other two were gone. The two girls knew the Reaper well, at least well enough to know that he would want to meet the Guardians.

"No. He said that we should go meet-ACK!" she cut off as Grim poked her in the back. He was wearing his robes, but the hood was down.

"Surprise," he said.

"Hey Grim!" Stella greeted. Then she paused. "I think!"

"Yeah, it's me," he said, ruffling Stella's short hair and startling the blind girl.

"H-Hi!" Sparks stuttered, a blush creeping across her face. She had always had a crush on Grim.

"Hey," Grim greeted with an easy smile. "So why did you two call me out here?"

"Well, we wanted to know if you'd want to meet the Guardians with us!" Stella said excitedly.

"I'd love to, but I can't right now. I have to meet with an employer of my friend," Grim said with a slight frown. Stella and Sparks exchanged sad looks.

"Oh, okay," Stella muttered. "We just got the letter that said they would meet with us. We weren't expecting it for at least another day, but if you can't come then it would be unfair."

Grim sighed when he saw their sad faces. "How about this: Tomorrow, around seven or eight, come back here and then you can take me to meet the Guardians."

"Really?" Stella asked. "That would be awesome."

"Yeah, That would work out just fine. No problem," Sparks said, the blush making her pale face look like a strawberry.

"I actually need to get going now. I'll see you two tomorrow, right?" he asked.

"Yeah," both girls said at once. Grim turned and disappeared into the shadows of the surrounding forest, and the two girls teleported to the meeting point, beating everyone else there.

...

"What do you mean "We're getting visitors"? We never get visitors!" Jack exclaimed as he leaned against the control table in North's workshop. The enormous Russian man was staring intently at the giant globe in front of him.

"We are getting visitors," North said. "Man in Moon's orders. Not mine."

"Who? Jamie and his sister?" Jack asked.

"No. Other holidays," North said as he concentrated on what he was doing.

"What other holidays?" Jack inquired, plainly confused.

"Every holiday has a spirit to go along with it, as does every season," North explained.

"You mean that there are Guardians for spring and summer and fall?" Jack asked.

"They are not Guardians. Just spirits," North said. "But they do the work of Guardians, protecting children and helping them."

"Wait, if there are more good holidays, then there must be..." Jack trailed off.

"Yes, Jack," North sighed, turning to the boy. "There are also evil holidays. And a few neutral ones."

"Why haven't I met them before?" Jack asked. He paused for a moment. "Wait, nevermind. I have met some of them before."

"Well, they are coming to visit. Sandy, Tooth, and Bunnymund have all gone to keep and eye on them. They also delivered the letters," North said.

"When will they get here? The holidays, I mean," Jack asked.

"At 9 or so," North said. "We will bring them in waves over the course of the night. My magic snow globes can't be used too often in one spot without risking a major catastrophe."

"How many are there?" Jack asked.

North paused for a moment to think. "Twenty or thirty."

"That's a lot of people," Jack said with a whistle.

"Yes. Now go away so I can figure out what my belly is trying to tell me," North said. Jack, having been through this before, gladly left.

He just couldn't help but be nervous about all the visitors that would be coming.

...

"Ah, a visitor. What is the occasion, Grim Reaper?" Pitch asked as he looked at Grim. They were alone, Pitch having sent all of his operatives away.

"I heard from Difunto about you and your new "plan" that you are currently initiating," Grim said. "Care to tell me what its about?"

"I can tell you a few things, but not all," Pitch said. "Unless, of course, you plan on joining us."

"I might, depending on what I hear," Grim replied. Pitch realized that he was going to have to show some of his cards for his plan to work.

So, he told Grim about Labor Day and the energy storing machine.

"Why do you need to store the energy?" Grim inquired.

"I believe that I have told you enough. You need to give up some information now," Pitch demanded.

"Fine. Ask away," he said, casually leaning against the wall.

"Why did you meet with those holidays before coming here?" Pitch asked.

"I should have guessed that you'd put one of your Fearlings on my trail," Grim said with a bark of laughter. "And I've known them for a while."

"Difunto told me that you had no reason to join the Guardians. I guess he was incorrect," Pitch said with false disappointment.

Grim stayed silent, his red eyes watching Pitch carefully.

Pitch decided to put his plan into motion. "How about this: my offer will remain on the table. You can meet with your precious friends, and meet with the Guardians, but afterwards, come back and tell me how it went. That is my price for the rest of the details of my plan."

"Alright," Grim said. "Seems simple enough. I will be seeing you tomorrow." And with that, Grim disappeared.

Pitch smiled. He knew exactly how the meeting with the Guardians would go. Afterwards, Grim would be more than willing to help him capture or kill as many of the Guardians as he wanted.

And all because of one person.

* * *

**Chapter done.**

**Yay!**

**Point out my spelling mistakes.**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit**


	15. Chapter 15

**New Chapter!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Jess and Skywalker were the last to arrive at the meeting point. As they landed in the clearing, they discovered that they were, unsurprisingly, late. Only three groups remained: Eira's, Val's, and the group of solo holidays.

"Sorry we're late," Jess apologized.

"It's fine," Val said, exchanging a smirk with Neoelle. Jess and Skywalker turned red, realizing that the two spirits of Valentine's Day suspected that something had happened between them. Something romantic.

And nothing had.

At all.

Whatsoever.

Period.

End of story.

Neoelle looked at them, holding her cat in her arms. "Juliet's group just left, and everyone else has already been transported. Stella and Sparks are going last for some reason. They are looking for something or whatever."

"Is this the other group that you talked about?" Jess asked.

"Yeah, this is them." The group consisted of seven people.

The first was a girl with one blue eye and one brown eye. She was introduced to them with the name of Cimag. She immediately walked up to Jess and Skywalker and hugged them.

"What holiday are you?" Jess asked, being squeezed by the girl's arms.

"I'm Opposite Day," Cimag said sadly. "I don't really like it, but I manage. I'm also Cinag at times, but not right now."

A little odd, but okay.

The next person was a pale, freckly girl with long white hair that was shot through with green and black streaks. She seemed very close to Cimag and, like her, had multi-colored eyes. In her case, however, she had a silver eye instead of a brown one. Both girls had a blue eye of the exact same shade.

"This is Phoenyx," Cimag said, gesturing to her friend.

"Call me Nyx. I'm in charge of the Lantern Festival. You've probably never heard of it."

Skywalker glanced uneasily at Jess. "You are correct. We have never heard of it." Nyx muttered some angry words before walking away with Cimag.

"What kind of accent did she have?" Jess wondered, her eyes following the girls.

"You mean Nyx? It was like a weird mix between Czech and Australian. On all of my journeys, I've never heard any like that," Skywalker said, moderately confused by the odd sounding speech pattern of the pale girl.

The next people they met were two men. The first appeared to be twenty or so, and was over six feet tall with a pale, angled face. There was a smudge-like burn across his face, causing him to be missing all but a faint mark of his right eyebrow. His thick, black hair was braided down his back, and he had strange horns coming out from behind his oddly shaped ears. He had burning golden eyes, almost orange, and a row of sharp teeth. Skywalker could have sworn that the man had dragon-like feet and long nails.

"Hello. I am Eric," the man said calmly, a bright glint in his eyes. "I represent the Chinese New Year. This is my friend, Ling."

Ling was a shorter, somewhat burly man. He had black hair in a pony tail and dark, brown eyes that seemed to be constantly glaring. He had a green bandana around his forehead, and a pencil jade necklace on. He wore a green changsan that was missing it's sleeves and collar. His gray pants were tied at the knee, with white socks meeting them and combat boots on his feet. He, unlike Eric, was armed to the teeth. He had bracers on his forearms, left shoulder, shins, and back, as well as leather armor around his stomach. He also had a sash that contained knives made of shiny silver metal, clearly not of this earth. A silver bow and quiver were on his back. Something told Skywalker not to mess with this guy.

"Hello," Ling said. "I am the spirit of the Moon Festival." His breath smelled of alcohol, and a bottle could be seen, corked and stored casually in his pocket.

His words peaked the interests of the two children, but they said nothing. Their minds, however, were racingwith the thought that this man had some relation to the Man in the Moon. Before they could get the courage up to say anything, the two men walked off.

The final pair that Skywalker and Jess met were clearly a couple. The boy had lively ocean blue eyes and shaggy black hair with golden tips. His girlfriend seemed to be more on the shy side, hiding her face behind her dark brown hair. Her brown eyes observed Jess and Skywalker carefully.

"I'm Lee. I kinda control the west wind. And this is my girlfriend, Cha." The girl offered a small wave, but said nothing else. Lee smiled apologetically, mouthing the word "shy". The duo smiled in understanding and moved on.

"I didn't know that there were this many holidays that don't come to our council," Jess murmured.

"Well, señorita, some people like to be left alone," Skywalker whispered back.

Jess was about to argue with him when Eira stood up. She looked uncomfortable, probably worrying about Stella and Sparks.

"Attention everyone! The next portal will arrive in less than ten seconds! North said that this one can fit about a dozen or so people, but one of us has to stay behind for Stella and Sparks."

"I will!" Cimag volunteered immediately.

"Thank you," Eira said as a portal erupted behind her. A yeti came through and waved them all through. When it noticed that Cimag was staying behind, it looked at her questioning. She shook her head. The enormous creature handed her a small snow globe with a note attached before disappearing into the portal, which closed behind him.

Cimag brushed her short curls out of her face as she read the letter.

_We are aware that you have some "stragglers". This mini portal can transport up to 5 people. Tell them to hurry if they want a tour of my workshop,_

_North._

Cimag sighed. There was no way that she could contact the two girls that she was stuck waiting for, so she just sat there and waited.

And waited.

After twenty minutes, three people materialized in the clearing. Cimag recognized the first two as Sparks and Stella, but the third was a person that she had never seen before. It was a tall, pale boy with red eyes. He was wearing a black t-shirt and black pants. In his hands was a scythe.

Cimag nearly screamed, but forced herself to relax. It wasn't a pitchfork. Both herself and Cinag hated pitchforks and anything that resembled a pitchfork. She had to calm down, or else risk releasing Cinag.

"Hello!" she greeted cheerily,walking over to them. "Who is your guest?"

"This is our friend Grim! He wants to come meet the Guardians too! He was a little late with his notice, but that's okay," Stella said happily.

"Did you clear this with the others?" Cimag asked nervously.

"It'll be fine! Don't worry!" Sparks said, patting Cimag on the shoulder. "It'll be fine!"

She appeared to think it over for a minute before deciding. "Okay, fine. Stand back." She pulled the small snow globe out of her pocket and threw it against a tree. She walked briskly through it, closely followed by the three others. They were in and out in an instant, jolted through a rainbow spectrum into a new place.

It was North's workshop. Cimag gaped as she looked around. It was enormous here, dozens of floors where Yeti could be seen, making toys, and elves could be heard, messing around as they tested out the toys. Lights were draped everywhere, flashing and glowing in multiple colors. Above a roaring fireplace was a portrait of the great Nicholas St. North. A globe floated near an observation deck on the third floor, showing the happiness in the world.

All in all, it was incredible. Looking around, Cimag could see the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman, and the Easter Bunny all leading groups around, showing them the incredible workshop. North was no where to be seen, as well as several of the "senior" holidays. Cimag assumed that they were discussing more important topics.

And, lucky for the new arrivals, Jack Frost was their greeter.

"We were only expecting three of you," Jack said, eyeing Grim with uncertainty. "Who's this guy?"

"I'm nobody right now," Grim responded easily. He couldn't help but wonder how the kid in front of him could ever beat Pitch.

"Alright. I'll give you a tour later. You guys are a little late, so we held off the meeting for you," Jack said as they met up with the other groups in front of the massive floating globe. North was still no where to be seen. The Guardians waited several minutes for the Russian man but, after no sighting of him, they decided to begin.

"Thank you all for coming here!" Toothiana squealed as she and her Minifairies examined everyone's teeth.

"We heard that this meeting was called due to a disturbance that had to do with Pitch and several of his new allies," Bunnymund said. He bent down and muttered to Jack, who quickly flew off into the workshop.

Toothiana glanced at Bunnymund as both of them stood in front of the expectant holidays. "That's all we really know about this, to be honest. North is the one in charge of the Guardians, so we'll wait for him to return."

"We are coming! Sorry!" North shouted from the third floor. He and the group of holidays with him quickly descended the stairs. Jess and Skywalker were muttering together, while Eira and Happy appeared to be asking North several follow up questions."

Grim was staring at them as they made their way closer, his entire body rigid. He had a death grip on his scythe.

"Grim?" Stella asked, sensing his body begin to shake. "Are you okay?" She thought that the shaking was from fear or excitement, but it wasn't.

It was from deep, icy hatred.

Blood roared in his ears as he saw the person that he hated more than anything. She caught sight of him and froze, her jaw clenched. She stopped so suddenly that North nearly tripped over her.

"Hello Grim," the blonde girl said icily.

"Long time no see, Happy," Grim spat.

"How the hell did you get in here?" Happy growled. All movement and noise around them ceased as the holidays and Guardians alike tried to figure out exactly what was going on.

"I was invited," he said mockingly. "By a few of your own."

Happy's eyes narrowed. "Who did this?" she asked very quietly, slowly making her way down the steps. "Who invited him here?"

Stella went to speak, but then hesitated. She didn't want to get Sparks or Cimag in trouble.

Unfortunately, her small movement did not go unnoticed by those around her.

"What did you do, Stella?" Eira asked, walking over and placing her hands on the blind girls shoulders.

"We didn't know," she whispered. "Sparks and I, we didn't know that this would happen. We forced Cimag to let him come here. We didn't know!"

Eira turned to look at Happy, who heard everything. She looked incredibly dangerous.

"Everyone out, except for Cimag, Stella, and Sparks," she said very carefully. She had finally reached the bottom step, and was now staring at Grim with fury.

Eira, upon hearing the other girl's order, began to shepherd everyone out of the room. She took the pack containing New Years away from Happy and quickly left, going to the top floor with everyone else.

"We're staying here," Tooth said firmly, speaking for the Guardians. Happy didn't spare her a glance.

"Do what you will. My fight not with you."

Grim smiled. "That's right! It's with me! After all these years, we still haven't resolved it!"

Stella began to tremble next to Sparks and Cimag, who held her hands. None of the girls had ever seen or heard Grim act like this. Their movement drew the attention of the Guardians.

"You three can leave," Jack whispered. Still, they remained stoic. Jack frowned at them. "I said, you guys can leave."

"No. They are staying," Happy said. "They need to learn."

"Learn what?" Grim shouted. "How to stand there and die? How to get their wits scared out of them?" He began to cackle manically.

"They need to learn what a piece of garbage you really are." Happy muttered.

"More like how to be cut to pieces. I've gotten more powerful since I last met with you, Happy. The amount of people who have died now outweighs the number of people born due to abortions. People are dying without ever being born. The amounts of Death in this world now dominates the Life. And you know what that means."

To anyone else, Happy appeared to be unaffected by Grim's speech, but, being the Grim Reaper, he could tell when someone was afraid.

And Happy was slowly being filled with fear. Her mouth was pressed in a hard line, her fists balled by her sides. She didn't show it, but she knew what Grim was talking about, and it scared her.

The balance was broken. Life and Death were no longer on even terms. Death was more powerful, which meant that Grim was stronger.

And Happy was weaker. She had barely come out of their last fight alive. Sure, Grim had been no better, but if he was more powerful...

He struck without warning, moving like lightning and swinging his scythe towards her, trying to decapitate her. Years of experience fighting against Grim was what saved Happy's life. She was accustomed to his speed and fought accordingly. She flipped easily over the black blade, landed, and then flattened herself to the ground as the second blow came. The third blow was a little unexpected, forcing Happy to block it with her forearms. The others thought that she was crazy, until the scythe tore away part of her long sleeves, revealing long, silver arm guards.

The others present reacted slowly, but quickly moved forward to try to assist in the fight.

"No! I forbid it!" Happy shouted to the three holidays. The girls didn't stop. "You'll only make it worse!" Now the girls froze, looks of sadness and shame on their faces. Happy cursed herself for speaking without thinking.

The Guardians moved forward next but also stopped. They could find no opening for them the help out. They split up, Tooth remaining with the three holidays, Bunnymund running up the stairs with Sandy in tow to check on the other holidays, and the three remaining Guardians covering the exit in order to trap the Grim Reaper, should he try to escape.

"She didn't really mean that," Tooth said to the girls. "She's just a little distracted right now." The girls didn't respond. They were paralyzed by what they were witnessing.

Meanwhile, Grim began to show that he hadn't been lying about his increased strength. His blows, when Happy was forced to block them, bruised her skin beneath the metal. When his scythe collided with the floor, it left huge gouges. More evidence was present in the fact thar he was slowly but surely pushing her back.

She knew with certainty that she would be overpowered at any moment. Her mind wandered as she tried to think of an endgame, allowing Grim's next reversed blow to catch her hard in the chest, flinging her across the room. The scythe continued, its blade turning and getting stuck in one of the pillars. He yanked it free and seemed to decide something.

"Get out of here! Now!" Happy ordered. She tried to push herself up, at least to a sitting position, but couldn't. Grim walked over lazily, swirling the scythe in his hands. The three girls, led by Tooth, immediately headed for the exit. They were stopped by Grim, who seemed to almost teleport across the room.

"Where do you think your going?" he asked. Cimag swallowed in fear.

"What are you doing?" Happy shouted as Grim brought his scythe up over his head.

"Grim, please don't," Stella begged. "You were my friend in life. Please tell me that you remember."

"Remember? REMEMBER?!" he screamed. "Of course I remember! You killed yourself, and I pitied you and gave you a second chance. Want to know what I did later? I pushed you down that well!"

"You did what?" Happy screamed. She was on her knees now, trying to stand. "You're the bastard that killed her?!"

"And I'm about to do it again!" He swung his scythe sideways, intending on slicing all three girls in half.

Happy moved at a speed that would have made light jealous. Before Sparks could attempt to block with her staff, before Cimag could duck and Stella could scream, Happy was in front of them, barely holding the blow from hitting her face with both metal arm guards. North grabbed Cimag and carried her up the stairs. Jack and Tooth picked up Stella and Sparks and shot off with them, leaving Happy and Grim alone.

Grim smiled as he applied more force to the blade, causing her to slide backwards a few inches. Grim slid the scythe carefully, allowing it to slowly slip through the gap between both arm guards. The very tip of the scythe dug into her cheek. Happy twisted her arms, ripping the scythe out of Grim's hands and sending it hurtling into the floating globe. Instead of going after the scythe like Happy had hoped, he launched himself at her, knocking her over and pinning her to the ground.

"I told you that you couldn't beat me," Grim hissed. He wrapped his pale hands around Happy's throat. She began to struggle madly, but Grim responded by slamming her head against the floor several times, stunning her. She was still conscious, though, and staring as him with her yellow eyes. She looked sad, as if remembering that once, long ago, they had been friends. She grabbed at his wrists, trying to relieve some of the pressure that was stopping her from breathing. Grim began to laugh softly.

"Why are you still struggling? You know you can't win."

She, of course, didn't respond. Her grasp on Grim's wrists began to weaken. The world around her began to darken, and she felt her conciousness begin to slip. Her hands slipped off of his wrists and her body went slack. Her eyes began to close and she realized that she was completely trapped.

But not completely alone.

A blast of golden sand sent Grim flying off Happy. He slammed into the control panel of the globe, denting it. Sandman floated over and raised his small hand. A massive amount of sand began to form around him. Grim realized that he wasn't going to be able to block the sand, or evade it for very jumped to his feet and flew at the globe. He yanked his scythe out of it, barely avoiding an enormous rope of golden sand. With a swirl of his scythe, Grim vanished from the workshop.

Sandman, seeing the threat disappear, sent some of his sand up to where the others were hiding. Tooth, Jack, and North returned with Stella, Sparks, and Cimag. Bunnymund came down alone, telling the others that Jack was staying with the other holidays.

"Less people crowding us here, the better," Bunnymund said. "And this is something that I don't want them to see, just in case."

"Is she...?" Tooth asked, fluttering around them worriedly. Sandman placed two fingers against Happy's neck, searching for a pulse. After a few seconds, he gave them a thumbs up. Happy's breathing began to regulate again.

"Thank goodness," North nodded to Sandman, who flew up to the top floor where Jack was, telling them it was okay to come down.

"This is all our fault," Sparks said tearfully as she stared at Happy's form, cursing her own stupid crush had caused this. Poor Stella was shaking like a leaf, still trying to process the fact the Grim, the one who had spared her soul after she committed suicide, was also the stranger who pushed her into that deep well, killing her again. Cimag was trying to comfort both girls as well as she could.

"What exactly happened here?" Eira asked as she and the other holidays raced down the stairs. She saw Happy on the ground and raced over. "Happy! Are you okay?"

"Well, I have a massive head ache and my throat feels like someone has been strangling me, but other than that, I'm perfectly fine."

"We're sorry!" Stella, Sparks, and Cimag all said at the same time.

"It's fine. You couldn't have know. Just try not to talk to strangers anymore," Happy wheezed as Eira helped her to a sitting position. "I apologize for my rude words earlier." Happy took New Years from Eira, holding the sleeping child in her lap.

"That's okay. You were right anyway," Sparks said.

"What happened?" Jack asked as he and the Guardians approached Happy. "You seemed to know that guy. Why did he try to kill you?"

Happy let out a sigh.

This was not a story that she enjoyed telling.

...

Pitch watched what was happening at North's workshop through a screen. He smiled when he saw Grim and his fight with the Birthday spirit, Happy. He could see the severe animosity between them.

And he knew about the feud, too. He knew about it from the start, and that knowledge allowed him to know exactly what would happen when Grim went to visit the Guardians.

And now he knew exactly what was going to happen next. Grim would figure out that he'd have to get through the Guardians to get to Happy. He could always wait, but Pitch knew that, after coming so close to killing her today, Grim would be enraged and wanting to kill her as soon as possible. He just needed to get to her first.

And Pitch could help with that. All Grim had to do was team up with him long enough to get to Happy, and then he could leave.

Grim materialized in the cavern in front of Pitch. He was panting and clenching his scythe. His red eyes were full of rage and hate. Pitch smiled at him, making Grim realize that Pitch had known this was going to happen the entire time.

So, Pitch's perfect plan worked. Maybe he did deserve to be called the Nightmare King after all.

* * *

**Chapter done.**

**It's absolutely huge too.**

**Please point out my errors.**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit.**


	16. Chapter 16

**New Chapter!**

**This is a surprisingly short story.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Happy sighed as she held New Years in her arms. The baby was now sleeping peacefully. After a pause, Happy began to speak.

"I have known Grim for a while. An incredibly long time, in fact."

"How long?" Shay interrupted impulsively.

"Longer then I can remember," Happy said. "We used to be friends, you see. Opposites attract and all of that jazz. We made sure that the balance between Life and Death was kept. Soon, though, New Years and Chinese New Years came around." She gestured to New Years and Eric respectively. "Grim say that the balance had been disrupted. He only had Difunto, who was like a son to him. At first, Grim was fine with it, but then another being representing Life came around, which upset him again, but he still kept a level head. Then, something happened that made me hate him. We've been trying to kill each other for decades."

"What happened?" Carter asked.

"That is something that you do not need to know," Happy said as she got to her feet.

"Uh, yeah it is," Skywalker said seriously. "If that guy keeps on showing up, someone is going to get hurt."

"I have it handled," Happy said, getting slightly angry. "If it happens one more time, then I will end it."

"Why didn't you just end it in that last fight?" Jess asked.

Happy looked at her. "I wasn't prepared to."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Skywalker now demanded.

"Nothing. Now, can we please move on to the true purpose of our visit?"

Eira came to Happy's rescue. "She's right. Let's get to talking." With that, everyone took a seat on the floor. North and the other Guardians stood at the front of the room.

"So," North began. "You all have come to us with new grievances against Pitch, correct?"

"Yes, that's right," April shouted from the back.

"Well, we beat Pitch last year," Jack said. "I don't see how he is a problem again. He should be out of believers."

"Not anymore," Ling said. "Eric and I have spotted Nightmares and Fearlings in some of the most remote places, places where most of us don't even go."

"We've seen them too," Lee said, with a nod from Cha.

"They are probably just some spares that we missed," Bunnymund said dismissively. "They'll vanish eventually."

"We have more important things to worry about anyway," Tooth added, with mutters of agreement from the other Guardians. Except Sandy, of course. He seemed to disagree.

"What are they getting at?" Marshal whispered to Melodia, who shrugged. She passed the question along to Shay and Marina, who then asked Eve and Carter, until the entire group of holidays were muttering amongst themselves about it.

"What we're saying here is that we don't see how this problem concerns us," Jack said. As one, the holiday group froze in mid-conversation.

"You've got to be shitting me," Shay said.

"We're not. We really shouldn't risk involvement," North said.

Happy glanced at Eira as they felt the entire world crash down around them.

"What if we begin to die out? Then what will you do?" Juliet demanded.

North waited a second before he spoke. "Well, according to some of your senior members, there has been only one death." When they tried to protest, North held up his hands. "You simply passed on the responsibilities on to another holiday." He gestured to Marshal. "He's doing fine. All you need to do is keep on doing that."

"What happens if we're all gone and there is no one left to take our responsibilities?" Eric demanded.

"Well, more spirits like you are always popping up. I mean, like your friend Happy. She has been around longer than any of us. And then there is Melodia, who is 400, and April, who is 600. And then there is Val who has only been a spirit for 15 years, and Marina, who has been a spirit for just 2 years," North said. "And, if worse comes to worse, we can just take over. How hard could it be?"

This enraged everyone.

"Are you kidding me?" Shay and Melodia screamed at the same time.

"We're just replaceable to you?" Nyx shouted, shaking her fist at them.

"Do you even understand our holidays?" Cinag asked with incredible sadness. "Do you understand the changes we had to go through to become what we are today?"

"I have freaking wings!" Skywalker yelled. "You think that's normal? You think I liked waking up one day, completely invisible to everyone, even my parents? I spent months trying to show them that I was still alive!"

"Some of us died to become spirits!" Val shouted, remembering how her horrible, abusive boyfriend had pushed her off a cliff and to her death.

"Some of watched as our friends and family suffered through our death!" Sparks said, thinking of how she and her brother were torn apart by wolves. Only she came back.

"The Labor Day spirit was killed just a few months ago!" Marina shouted. "He was our friend!"

"Don't you even want to figure out why we're being hunted down and killed?" Zack asked.

Some of the holidays were just sitting there, mute with shock. They had worked so long for this, and the Guardians simply _didn't care._ North was beginning to get annoyed by the shouting.

"Be silent!" Once everyone had settled, he looked around. "Maybe it's time for you all to leave."

"You're throwing us out?" Marshal asked, slightly fearful. Stella swallowed nervously next to him.

"No, they're killing us," Happy said, anger simmering up again. She rose to her feet, something that most of the other holidays had already done. "I promise you that this is not just going to go away. Any death at the hands of Pitch or one of his allies is now your responsibility."

"Hey, that's not fair!" Jack exclaimed.

"Isn't is?" Eira asked with an icy glare. "You are throwing us to the wolves. We came to you for help. You are the Guardians. You are supposed to be helping us, organizing us so we can take down Pitch, but you are doing nothing. Merely hiding with your tail in between you legs like cowards."

"Don't call us cowards!" Tooth said shrilly.

"Then how about you stop acting like one?" Zack said, spitting in Jacks direction.

"Alright guys," Happy said quietly. "Let's go." With that, the holidays filed out, towards the top level of the workshop. Several of them were crying quietly. Once they reached the roof, they divided up again with the intention of meeting up at Eve's factory, which existed on the same dimensional plane as North's workshop. On wings, brooms, mops, rainbows, and one giant goose, the holidays left the workshop, heading towards what seemed to be their doom.

* * *

**Chapter done!**

**Yay!**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter!**

**Yay!**

**I still have no idea what number it is.**

* * *

Far from North's workshop was a second, different in all but a few ways. They were both huge, and in the same shape, but the other workshop was dark and slightly morbid. At least, on one side it was. On the other, it looked like all the candy shops in the world had vomited there. The holidays were all resting there, on the candy side. This was Eve's workshop, where her Jack O'Lantern minions made treats for Halloween. The holidays had been there for two days, deep in thought and discussion with one another.

"This is a disaster," Eve repeated for the thousandth time. She didn't know why she kept saying it, but she did. It was on everyone's minds anyway.

"We know, Eve, but what are we going to do about it?" Zack asked. He, April, and Carter, who had become a fast, but rambunctious, trio of friends, were now all silent. There was absolutely nothing to joke about here.

"Why did they say those things?" Stella asked sadly. After Grim had attacked Happy, Stella became traumatized, crying at random moments. The harsh words from the Guardians didn't help her in the slightest. Eira sighed and walked over to the blind girl, wrapping her in a hug. Aurora patted her on the shoulder.

"It's okay. They're just under a lot of stress," she said, trying to comfort her friend. It made no apparent impact on her.

"Maybe you should get some sleep," Eira suggested. "Maybe we all should."

Carter shook his head. "We're going to stay here and try to figure out a plan."

"Okay. Just don't stay up too late," Eira warned. She, Stella, and Aurora got up and moved away from the room. Once they were gone, Jess spoke up from her seat on the sofa next to Skywalker.

"Do any of you know what's going to happen next?"

"No idea," Melodia said sadly. "We could try convincing them to help us."

"Didn't you hear them?" Marina asked. "There is no way we can do anything about it."

"I can't believe that Jack wouldn't help us," Nyx said sadly, causing Neoelle to scoff.

"He became a Guardian. Of course he's acting all high and mighty," she growled.

"Surely he remembers how tough it was to be just a spirit," Marshal murmured.

"He's choosing to forget it," Juliet said. "I don't blame him. A lot of people choose to forget things."

"Such as?" Skywalker prompted.

"Well, I like to forget my past," Val said earnestly.

"I forget about my death sometimes," Melodia said casually. "I'm sure all of us who were brought back forget about it too."

Ling and Eric were in a corner, listening to the younger children talk.

"It's sad, isn't it?" Eric said. "These poor souls were taken from their life far too soon."

"Yes, they are too young to be experiencing death," Ling muttered with a sigh. He couldn't help but wish that his own child had made it into the world.

"I hope we can make some sort of agreement treaty with the Guardians," Eric said wistfully.

"I think we should attack them, or at least Pitch. Eliminate him before he can eliminate us," Ling said with conviction. Eric merely shook his head.

"And who are we up against exactly? How may are there? What are their motives? How can we kill them?" Eric inquired. Ling frowned and let out a sigh.

"I'm always ready to go into a fight, but you always stop me. Why?" he asked.

"Because these long days would be hard to pass without a friend," Eric said with a grin as his friend sipped from a bottle of alcohol.

"I can drink to that," he said as they turned back to the youngsters, who were still debating.

"We really can't do anything, now can we?" Carter asked angrily, reaching the same conclusion for the tenth time. Zack shook his head carefully, trying not to wake April, who had fallen asleep on his shoulder. Carter looked at him with a raised eyebrow and gestured to the doorway across the room. Zack scooped his sleeping friend up in his arms and walked slowly out of the room, trying hard not to wake her. Carter noticed everyone else dozing off around him. He carefully shook Marshal and Melodia awake, who then stumbled off to bed. He pulled Marina up and the two left the room together.

Soon, the others began to head to their beds as well Nyx actually tripped over Sparks as the two walked towards their separate rooms. This terrified Cimag, who had been just a couple steps before her. The Spirit of Opposite Day ended up bolting from the room. Cursing, the two other girls got to their feet and drowsily walked to bed. Cha and Lee, who had been snuggled together on one of the couches, got up silently and stepped into their room, falling asleep in each others arms. Juliet and Val ended up carrying Shay out of the room. The girls slept like the dead and was like a limp rag doll. Eventually, Neoelle stepped in and simply dragged her from the room. Eventually, Ling and Eric left the now empty room and headed to sleep.

Eve, on the other hand, had to stay awake, just for a little while. She went around, performing bed checks and making sure there were no Nightmares lurking. She nearly tripped over Goss's goose, which immediately lifted its head, staring at her angrily. Eve carefully backed away with a smirk. She had spotted Goss sleeping under the bird's wing with that weird dog that was obsessed with cupboards. Goss always said that he hated the two animals. Apparently not.

She continued walking along the hall, pausing to close the door to Happy's room where the spirit and New Years were sleeping soundly. Eve yawned when she realized what time it was. Almost eleven at night. It was time for her to go to bed. She tripped into her hammock and was out like a light.

There still was someone awake, however.

Jess was standing outside of the workshop. It was situated next to a lake, which Jess found to be a very peaceful spot. She liked this workshop much better than the other. At least they weren't going to get thrown out of this one. The lake was calm, giving off warm, humid air. Frogs could be heard, croaking in the reeds that surrounded the lake. Jess especially liked how the dark pine trees were silhouetted against the sky, and that the stars lit up the still, gleaming surface.

Something nudged her hand, nearly making her scream. She barely held it back as she spun around. Behind her was Ebony the tiger.

"Hey Ebony. What are you doing out here?" she asked, not expecting any response from the tiger. She heard a weird noise, called a "chuffing". Skywalker had told her what it meant earlier. Ebony was basically saying hello. It was either that, or she was apologizing for something. Jess, having gotten over her fear of Ebony already, began to rub the cat's ears, which Ebony seemed to love.

"There you are Ebony," Skywalker's voice said from behind Jess. She spun around. "And Jess. Hola señorita."

"Why are you awake?" she asked. Skywalker gave her a look.

"You're going to ask me why I'm awake? Shouldn't you be asleep?" he asked.

"Couldn't sleep, which brings me out here," she said, gesturing to the world around her.

"I see," Skywalker said, running his shaggy brown hair. Juliet took the opportunity to study him. He was in full black, dressed like Zorro, except for his sneakers. He was, for once, without his sword. He had flawless skin, an angelic face, perfect tan, no cuts or blemishes save the freckles on his nose. His most outstanding feature, however, had to be his piercing silver eyes, which were sprinkled with contrasting amber flecks.

"Why is Ebony here?" Jess asked. "I thought Eve put them all in the dog candy room."

"She was. I don't know how she got out. I've been asking her, but I'm being brick walled here," Skywalker said with a frown. Suddenly, his mind was overpowered by Ebony's voice, shouting the same phrase in German over and over.

IHR SAGEN!

Tell her.

And Skywalker was almost deafened by the noise. He fell to his knees, his hands covering his ears, trying to block out the noise. Ebony then used another ability that Skywalker absolutely hated: telemathy, the transference of emotions through telepathy. Skywalker froze as he was will with incredibly strong emotions, courtesy of his tiger. Ebony had almost never used her telemathy against him, so his defenses weren't nearly strong enough to prevent the flood.

"What's going on? Skywalker, are you okay?" Jess asked worriedly, kneeling down in front of him and studying his face. Her emotion controlled eyes changed from their calm, grass green color to yellow, signaling her confusion and worry. As quickly as it had come, the pain in Skywalker's head vanished, along with the other emotions.

_Tell her_, Ebony whispered again. The tiger could sense Skywalker's answer already beginning to form, so she took matters into her own paws.

"What happened?" Jess inquired as the pain vanished from Skywalkers face.

"Ebony. She was revisiting our argument from earlier," Skywalker said. A frown formed on his face. "Where did that crazy tiger go?"

A massive weight threw itself against Skywalker, answering his question at once. Ebony had snuck behind him while she attacked his mind, and then tackled him _onto Jess._

"Argh! What the heck is happening?" Jess screeched as she found herself pinned beneath Skywalker and Ebony in possibly the most awkward position possible. All Ebony was doing was making sure that neither of them could move.

"Ebony, get off," Skywalker growled.

_Tell her_, she hissed inside his head.

"Skywalker?" Jess prompted, her face inches from his. She could actually feel his breath on her face, and the realization of how close they were made her blush, and caused her eyes to flash through a rainbow of different emotions.

_Come on, tell her! For goodness sake! It's only three little words!_ Ebony said.

_Nein_, Skywalker replied. _Never._

_Or you could make an immediate move,_ she purred. _Do it before she can react!_

_Do what? Kill her?_ Skywalker asked, slightly alarmed.

_No, idiot! Kiss her!_

"Um, what's happening?" Jess asked again, finding her voice. She had assumed that there was a heated telepathic battle going on in their heads, but she was seriously beginning to freak out, especially since she was pinned under an attractive, but slightly annoying boy, and his insane German speaking tiger.

"Just a small argument with Ebony," Skywalker muttered. "She's being childish because she is not getting her way."

_I am not being childish!_ Ebony shouted, letting out a quiet roar. She smacked him over the head with her paw, causing Skywalker's nose to brush Jess's, causing both spirits blushed.

"Does this have anything to do with what happened at my house? How she tackled you there?" Jess asked, her eyes wide.

"Yes, exactly that," Skywalker said. He shifted slightly, trying to get Ebony off of him. An angry growl made him stop.

"Can't you just come to some sort of agreement?" Jess asked.

"It's not that simple," Skywalker said.

"Come on, how bad could it be?" Jess asked. Her eyes darkened to a greyish shade. "Does it have to do with me?" she asked suspiciously.

_TELL FOR! FOR GODS SAKE IT'S NOT THAT BAD!_ Ebony screamed, causing Skywalker to cringe in pain again. _Don't force my hand,_ she warned.

_Don't you mean paw?_ he asked sarcastically.

"What did you do?" Jess squeaked as Ebony roared in absolute outrage.

"I insulted her a little bit," Skywalker said, feeling Ebony beginning to shift. "I think that was a really bad idea."

"You think?" Jess asked.

_I'll make you a deal! Let us up and I'll do it, _Skywalker bargained desperately.

_Fine, but no funny business now_, Ebony said, getting off of them.

"Thank god," Skywalker said as he rolled off of Jess.

"Why'd she let us up?" Jess asked. "Did you resolve your…feud?"

"Almost," he said, slightly secretively. He offered her a hand up, which she gratefully took.

"What do you mean "almost"? What else do you have to do?" she asked, wary of being tackled again.

Skywalker sighed and moved close to her, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. He moved forward and kissed her softly on the mouth. She was caught by surprise, but found herself kissing him back. After more than ten seconds, they broke apart. They didn't notice the two arrows that struck them, seemingly harmlessly, from two angles. One from Neoelle and one from Val.

"So, Ebony was messing with your love life," Jess guessed.

"Yeah, kinda," Skywalker said with a crooked grin.

"I'm glad she did," Jess whispered.

"Oh really?" Skywalker asked.

"Yup," she said with a grin. Ebony began to saunter off.

"Where do you think you're going?" Skywalker asked the tiger. "I'm not happy with your actions."

_Your girlfriend certainly is,_ Ebony retorted without turning around. _I'll leave you two lovebirds alone now._

"I'm sure you can find it in you heart to forgive her," Jess said as she wrapped her arms around him.

"Maybe," Skywalker whispered into her ear. "But you'll have to convince me first."

...

Jack sighed as he sat in North's workshop. The jolly man himself, along with Tooth and Bunnymund, were overseeing the repairs to the floor, which had been left in ruins from the fight between Happy and Grim. Sandman was gone, off knocking people out with sand.

"I'm so bored," Jack grumbled as he watched the Guardians work.

"Then find something to do," North suggested. "Fly around a little. Explore. Do what kids your age do." Jack let out a dramatic sigh and flew off. He was actually feeling rather down after sending the holidays away. He knew a couple of them quite well, but he, like the other Guardians, simply did not want to have to sort out their problems.

Jack drifted lazily out of a sky light, admiring the clear, starry night sky that stretched over his head. There was no wind, so he just floated along, over an ice cap. He touched down on a particularly tall peak and looked around with a sigh, enjoying the towering view that the glacier gave him. This was not something that kids his age usually did.

A loud buzzing noise invaded his ears, making him spin around in search of the source. He was startled to see a huge...thing fly over to the other end of the peak. It was enormous, covered in light blue feathers. It flew quickly on enormous wings. Jack held his staff out in front of himself, prepared to fight the thing. As it approached, however, it gave no sign of violence or threat. It just seemed to want something from Jack.

"Hello?" Jack tried to establish some sort of communication with the thing. Now that it was closer, Jack could make out more details. It was shaped like a human, and was covered in blue feathers, except for its face, which was human.

"What the heck are you?" Jack asked. The person just looked at him. "Say something!" Jack demanded. The boy just shook his head. "Just say whatever it is you need to say!" The boy continued to shake his head, and then began to try and mime something out. "What, are you too dumb to speak?" At that comment, the boy froze with an unhappy look on his face. Jack let out an angry huff and took off from the glacier.

"If you have something important to say, then just say it," Jack said angrily.

Little did Jack know, the being that had just tried to communicate with him was Mothman, known to his friends and girlfriend as just Moth. He was an urban legend and a forseer of the future, especially catastrophes. This gave him the nickname as the Bringer of Disaster. All he actually did was appear before hand and try to warn people of the danger on its way.

And he had gone there to try and tell Jack and the other Guardians of the coming disaster.

Of the massive seige that was about to lay waste to North's workshop.

But no one ever listened to him so, as always, Moth would stand by and watch the destruction as it took place.

* * *

**Chapter done!**

**Yay!**

**And I'm cast free!**

**Thanks.**

**~CatKkit.**


	18. Chapter 18

**New Chapter!**

**Still don't know the number!**

* * *

Pitch smiled broadly as he and his subordinates stepped out of a shadow. They were now concealed at the base of the snowy mountain that held North's workshop.

"Tianna, Tyler, go set up the machine," Pitch ordered, glancing at the brother and sister duo and the five ghosts that Tyler had summoned to help move all of the equipment.

"Okay sir," Tianna said, slightly frightened. She knew the power of the machine, and was slightly second-guessing the thought of using it against another holiday.

"What do I do, sir?" Erik asked, jumping around like an excited child.

"You will go with Pere and check the perimeter. Carefully, do you understand?" Pitch asked. Both dark holidays nodded and took to the sky, vanishing against the black sky. "Difunto, you will circle the other way to make sure they don't miss anything." Difunto transformed into his feathery, winged snake form and flew off silently.

"Primal Beast, go and fetch our other recruit," Pitch said. Primal Beast looked at him dully before he too left.

"And what about me?" Grim asked. He was trying to appear calm, but he was clearly very eager for what was about to ensure.

"Like I said previously, I am depending on you for the most important part of this plan: capturing the holidays needed for the power source," Pitch said. "I will ensure that your "enemy" is secured." Grim nodded, not looking particularly pleased with the plan. There wasn't too much he could do about it, though.

"When will you begin the first part of the attack?" Grim asked.

"Why, at dawn of course. When else?" Pitch said with a crafty grin that told more than his words did.

...

Jack sat up in bed and yawned. Usually, he would be up and about, but the hecticness at the workshop had tuckered him and the other Guardians out, prompting them to spend the night at North's workshop. After their battle against Pitch, North had installed bedrooms for each of them in a wing of the shop. Jack found it to be very thoughtful.

He took a glance out the window, realizing that he usually wasn't up at this time. It was only 5:00 in the morning. He felt wide awake, though, so he decided to wander about. North's workshop was so big that it'd probably take him several years to explore in order to find all of the secret passages.

Well, there's no time like the present.

Jack jumped out of bed and floated out of the room. He decided that flying would be safer and quieter. He didn't want to wake anyone, especially Bunnymund or Tooth. The giant rabbit was experiencing jet lag, due to the time difference between his home and the workshop. Tooth was just plain terrifying when she was woken up too early. Jack would rather die again than risk upsetting her.

He flew over the railing and into the huge gap between all the levels. He drifted upwards, towards the circle where the Man in the Moon could usually be seen. At this time, though, he had already moved from the sky. Jack sighed as he neared the top. This was his favorite spot, with the bird's eye view around the shop. Right now, it was silent, which made it comfortingly peaceful. Jack sighed and closed his eyes, having no idea that the enemy was watching just out of sight.

...

Difunto was half-way around the workshop when Primal Beast caught up with him.

"So, ready to meet the new guy?" Primal Beast asked with anticipation.

"Not really. I've met him before, and he's a real creep," Difunto said dismissively.

"Is that him there?" Primal Beast asked, gesturing to something hovering above them.

"Yup," Difunto said. "Go get him. I need to finish my perimeter check."

"Alright," Primal Beast said as the winged snake flew away, leaving him with the weird floating thing."Hello!" he called out. The form landed, and appeared to change shape slightly. The monstrous, owl-like form transformed into that of a tall, cloaked young man with a mask over his face.

The person just looked at him in the heavy silence.

"Um, are you the one that Pitch sent for?" Difunto asked as he changed back into his human form.

"I am," the man said, in an odd raspy voice.

"Well," Difunto paused, remembering Pitch's warning to be very careful with his words. "Well, Pitch would appreciate it if you came with me so he can explain the basis of the plan to you."

"If I must," the man said. He looked at Difunto with an annoyed expression when he didn't lead the way. "Well, are we going?"

"I need you to verify your name," Difunto said. "Just in case. We think your brother might be roaming around here, so we're just trying to be sure."

"Fine," the man said. "I'm Owlman, from the legends. You may call me Strig idae, or simply Strig. "

"Alright, thank you," Difunto said gratefully.

"You are such an insolent fool, aren't you?" Strig said, annoyed as ever. "If you know of my brother, than you should be smart enough to know that he is mute."

"Yes, of course," Difunto said, holding his tongue and transforming back into his snake form. "Now, if you'd please follow me." He watched in mild awe as the other man changed into what looked like an enormous, demonic owl. The only thing that remained the same was the black feathers from the cloak and the burning fire-colored eyes. Difunto couldn't help but feel like a worm about to be eaten as he flew, guiding the recruit to where Pitch was waiting.

...

"Is it ready?" Tyler asked his sister, who was sticking a pipe into an enormous contraption.

"Yeah, but remember that this is the portable one. We're just using it for an on-the-spot test," Tianna chided as she brushed some rust onto her neon and black clothing.

"And then we have to catch any other holiday that we can," Tyler said, already thinking of the booby traps laid out around them.

"Yeah, and don't forget the number one target," Tianna reminded casually. Underneath her facade, however, she was moderately disgusted. The "number one target" was basically a joke.

"No worries, I won't. Just make sure you stay out of Grim's way," Tyler said. "He's going to go crazy."

Tianna gave a quick nod before holding out a final pipe. "This will connect the machine to a power source. It's right there," she said, pointing to a section of wall less than a foot from the machine. "If I plug it in now, it will be noticed, so I need to do it when the attack is already taking place."

"Alright. I'll report that to Pitch," Tyler said. "The attack starts soon, and then we'll be able to get our revenge."

Tianna sighed as her brother took to the air. He was so convinced that she needed vengeance in order to move on. Maybe that was true, but it wasn't necessary to kill Jack Frost.

Or was it?

...

"Morning Jack!" A female voice called up, waking the frosty boy from his slumber. He had somehow managed to fall asleep while floating.

"What time is it?" Jack asked his hummingbird friend.

"It's still dark out, so I'm guessing around four or so," Tooth said, her wings quietly buzzing as she flew up to Jack. "Why are you up so early?"

"Couldn't sleep," Jack explained. "I usually don't sleep for a week, so my sleep last night really jolted my energy levels."

"Same here, but I don't sleep for months," Tooth said, wide-eyed.

"Really? How do you do that?" Jack asked, flabbergasted.

"Coffee," Tooth said simply. "Lots and lots of coffee." Jack nodded in slight understanding. He didn't really like hot coffee, only iced. He probably only drank a fourth of the caffeine as Tooth.

"Where's the rabbit man?" Jack asked.

"Bunnymund is still asleep. North is in his office, locked up. Probably working on some new ice locomotive," Tooth said with a smile. "I think Sandy is attacking Bunnymund with sleep dust. That would explain why he isn't up yet."

"I'm fine with him not being awake," Jack said. "He can be a pain."

"You know he can probably hear us talking about him."

"What? With those radar dishes on his head? I'll bet that he can hear the rocks whispering," Jack joked.

"Oi! That's not funny, mate!" Bunnymund exclaimed from several floors below them.

"It's totally funny!" Jack shouted down. Bunnymund looked at him with fury, causing Tooth to laugh. "See? I told you so!"

"She laughs at anything you say. It's because of your teeth! She can't stand mine due to my "massively large central incisors". See?" He pointed as his buck teeth.

"Still, I'm funny, so I win," Jack said, laughing as he floated down to the rabbit.

"I'm going back to bed," he said with a scoff.

"Alright, cool. I'm just going to drift around some more," Jack said as he began to do just that.

"I'm going to get ready to leave," Tooth said with a small smile. "I need to get back to the girls and keep track of some more teeth."

Jack nodded and continued to drift as his iridescent friend flew off in a flurry of feathers.

...

"Is everything ready?" Pitch asked, a hint of eagerness evident in his voice.

"As far as I can tell, yes," Pere said, glancing over his frameless glasses at a checklist in front of him. "You and Grim are here, along with myself. Tianna and Tyler are with the machine, prepared to turn it on, and then defend it. Difunto and Nobel Beast have gone with Strig to their correct offensive positions. Erik is hopefully in position, but there are no promises."

Pitch nodded. "Good. And what is the time?"

"It's almost five," Pere said, looking at the still dark sky. "Right now is Strig's time of strength, as well as ours. We mustn't waste this opportunity."

"Of course not," Pitch said, looking over at Grim. "Are you ready to get started?"

Grim looked at them with soulless red eyes. He was more than ready.

In fact, he was eager to begin.

* * *

**Chapter done!**

**Yay!**

**Okay, now I'm going to have to ask something of you all.**

**Do you specifically want your character to not die?**

**If so, then please tell me.**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Another Chapter!**

**Yay!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Stella sighed as she walked through the creaky workshop. Aurora had described it as enormous and candy covered, which was alright in her opinion. Stella paused as she felt a door on her left, which she opened.

"Hey! Wake up!" she called, hoping that someone was actually in the room.

"Ugh! Alright!" Shay's voice responded. Stella heard her roll out of bed. "Why the hell do we have to get up so early? It's only five!"

Stella just shrugged before moving on. Why did they get the blind girl to go wake everyone up? She came to the next door and opened it.

"Hello?" she asked. After a few moments, she heard nothing. "Hello? Is anyone in here?"

Across the room was Cha, who remained absolutely silent. It wasn't that she didn't like Stella, just that she was terrified of talking to anyone besides Lee, who was already downstairs.

"Whatever," Stella muttered before walking out of the room. Once she was gone, Cha collapsed to the ground in relief. She really didn't like to talk. Stella continued down the hallway, running into the door at the very end.

"Nice one," Shay commented from behind Stella.

"Shut up," Stella said angrily. She could hear some noises on the other side, so she opened the door. "Hello?"

"Oh my God!" Shay screamed.

"What? What's happening?" Stella asked. She stopped and listened again, realizing that there were two people in the room, not one. "Is that Jess and Skywalker?"

"Mmhmm," Shay mumbled, carefully shutting the door.

"Are they an item?" Stella asked.

"Mmhmm," Shay said again.

"I'm going to assume that they were making out," Stella said.

"Yup," Shay said, finally finding her voice. "Let's leave them be." With that, the two girls headed down stairs to the enormous, mint-shaped table.

"What was with all that screaming?" April asked.

"Jess and Skywalker," Shay explained. "They're-."

"THEY'RE CANON!" Stella screamed, turning to where she assumed Sparks was. "You owe me five bucks!"

"Dang it!" Sparks cursed, taking out the money and handing it to the blind girl.

Zack leaned over to April. "What can she do with five bucks? It's not like the humans can see her." April simply shrugged.

"I think it was just for the fun of it," she said. Jess and Skywalker entered the room, slightly awkward. They took a seat at the table with everyone else.

"So, now what?" Marshall whispered to Melodia.

"Well, now we eat breakfast, you silly goose," she said, knowing full well what the boy was actually asking. He wanted to know what they were going to do now that they had been tossed out by the Guardians.

"It's breakfast time!" Eve trilled as her jack o'lanterns came floating out with plates on their heads. Everyone grinned as they saw their favorite food in the world: pancakes.

"Sweet!" Zack said as a plate was set down in front of him. He stabbed a knife into it, only to find another of April's pranks. He received an electric shock and fell out of his chair, causing April and Carter to burst out laughing.

"Ah, the sweet taste of victory," April said, only to have a bucket of water dumped on her head. "Carter!"

"Good job!" Marina said, high-fiving her best friend.

"Yeah, now can you do me a favor and undo the trip wire that's on my glass?" Carter asked, noticing the thread.

"How did you see that?" Zack asked as he dragged himself back into his chair.

"I'm just awesome," Carter said as Marina removed the trip wire, only to have buckets of water fall on Eira, Marshall, and Melodia.

"Wooh!" Melodia cheered, floating up on her magical, shape changing instrument. It was now a stereo, which blared music. Luckily, it was loud enough to cover Eira's violent Gaelic swearing. Marshall just sat there, shivering.

As she floated, Melodia hit the another trip wire, which dropped an assortment of items on the table.

A spider landed in front of Juliet, and all hell broke loose.

"Oh my God!" she screamed, jumping back and knocking Goss into a potted plant

A plate of candy landed between Eve and April, who immediately began a fight-to-the-death for it. A purple sticky note attached itself to Shay's head, causing her to faint in terror and causing Nyx to stare at the purple abomination and scream. A plate of vegetables landed in the middle of the mint table, sending Sparks, Eve, April, and Lee running. Then, a piece of raw meat landed near Val, causing her to run into the bathroom to throw up. A live, flopping fish landed on Juliet, causing her to freeze in terror before falling unconscious. Neoelle was then electrocuted by her pancakes. Aurora watched the events unfolding with surprise before she turned to Cimag and began to discuss the politics in America. Stella was sitting next to Cha, trying to figure out if someone was actually there. Cha remained as silent as ever, not being remotely helpful to Stella. Jess and Skywalker were just staring at everyone.

"So what exactly is happening?" Eric asked to Ling. They watched as more buckets of water fell. Zack, who was still in his seat, glanced at April, who was soaked. He said what looked like a prayer, grabbed April's hand, and made her stab the pancakes again, electrocuting them both. Zack was shouting something about being the tragic hero, and how his sacrifice was well worth it.

"Well, we have three electrocuted, three soaked, one in a potted plant, one removing him from the potted plant, two locked in deadly combat over candy, one unconscious from the color purple, one screaming at the color purple, four running from vegetables, one running from meat, one unconscious from a fish, one floating around and blaring music, one swearing violently in another language, two talking politics, and two who are quite confused," Ling said, tallying them up. "And two lovebirds bored out of their minds. And then there's us." Eric let out an impressed whistle.

"I remember having all that energy in my youth," he said wistfully.

"And they are going to have that energy forever," Ling said. "And we're stuck with them."

"It surely won't be that bad," Eric said with a grin. Ling raised an eyebrow and shook his head.

"It's not like we have a choice," he said. The two men were grinning until another massive bucket of water soaked _everyone_.

"Everyone stop!" Happy shouted as she walked into the room. "If anyone touches their electrified pancakes, then you all will be shocked, and I will be forced to capture it in a series of amusing photographs." At once, everyone froze. "Okay, now who rigged the pancakes?"

"I did," the three pranksters said all together.

"I did it!" April said, shooting an angry look at Carter and Zack.

"No, I rigged Carters!" Zack said crossly.

"Mine isn't rigged!" Carter exclaimed, stabbing a knife into the pancakes. Everyone screamed and jumped back, only to find that there was nothing to worry about.

"I rigged yours," April said, pointing at Zack.

"Okay, I understand, but I know I rigged Carters!" Zack shouted.

"Well, I rigged some of the buckets," Carter admitted, receiving several glares.

"Why the hell did my pancakes electrocute me?" Neoelle asked angrily as she finally got up.

"So that's where they are!" Carter said. "I told you I rigged them. They must have been mixed up."

"Did you rig the plate of candy too?" April asked Carter.

"No, that was me, and I rigged Carter's glass," Zack boasted.

"I rigged the sticky note and the fish," April said.

"I did the meat," Carter claimed. "And the plate of vegetables."

"Who the hell did the spider?" Juliet demanded in rage. The three grinned at her.

"No one. That was just a coincidence," Zack said cheekily. "Living creatures are too unreliable."

"Except for fish," April reminded.

"Who put the giant bucket of water up?" Ling asked. No one in the room was dry except for Happy and New Years.

"I didn't," April said immediately. "I bet it was Zack."

"Me? I hate water," he exclaimed. "You know it cancels out my fireworks. That reminds me." He pulled another wire hidden under the table, causing it to burst into flames. "Whops. Wrong one." He pulled another wire, which set off fireworks, which destroyed the chandelier and caused it to fall onto the still flaming table.

"Maybe it was Carter!" April exclaimed. "Marina could have helped him."

"Would we ever do that?" Marina said with false innocence. "Maybe, maybe not."

"In my defense, I only did it because I knew Zack was going to make the table spontaneously combust," Carter said. "Unfortunately, Melodia triggered it too early."

"What do we do about the table?" Melodia asked, landing next to it.

"Well, a current study shows that electricity can be used to put out fire..." Happy trailed off with a smile, floating upwards slowly.

"What are you getting at?" Eira asked. Happy looked around, seeing all the soaked holidays. She pulled out her camera, causing mass panic.

"Oh no!" Juliet exclaimed.

"Run!" Zack said. Everyone tried to move, but weren't fast enough. Happy threw a fork, which hit Zack's rigged pancakes, releasing a burst of electricity which knocked everyone off their feet and put the fire out.

"These are going into my scrapbook," Happy said with a grin as she floated over them, snapping photos. New Years was on her back, giggling.

"Can you send me a copy?" Eira asked, still twitching on the ground. "I need a few for my collage."

"Yeah, no problem," Happy said, floating over her friend.

"That is one scary baby," Ling commented, hearing New Years continued laughter.

"He's just enjoying himself," Happy said. "I know I am." She drifted out of the room as everyone began to regain control of their muscles. The first thing that Zack decided to do was grab a knife and attempt to electrocute everyone again. He was swinging it down before he was tackled brutally by April.

"Everyone! Run before he can electrocute again!" she cried out.

"Get off!" Zack said angrily. When she didn't budge, he took drastic measures. He began to tickle her.

"Hurry guys!" April called while trying to stop Zack. She eventually squirmed off of him and resulted to blocking him from the circular breakfast food. They were both blushing.

"Take her as our sacrifice! April, you shall be remembered!" Shay laughed as everyone went out the doors.

...

"Must you really leave this early?" North asked Tooth.

"Yes, I need to check on the girls. They tend to miss me when I'm gone overnight," Tooth said with a grin. Sandy looked at her with a sad look. "Don't look so down. I'll be back on Saturday for brunch."

"I need to head out soon too," Bunnymund said. "This place is a little cold for my taste." North smiled.

"I see. It is nothing like the outback in your..." He froze as the lights began to flicker before going out completely.

"What just happened?" Tooth asked, looking at North.

"This is impossible," he said, looking around. "We have never had a loss of power before." The lights and power flicked back on.

"Maybe it was just a coincidence," Jack said casually. North shook his head as he walked quickly over to the control panel next to the giant globe.

"That is not possible," he said. He looked at a small screen with a green grid on it, and the outline of the workshop. It showed five green dots in the center, representing the Guardians. Hundreds of small purple dots showed the yetis and the elves. A few orange dots showed some of Tooth's fairies. Several red dots surrounded the perimeter of the workshop, moving forward. These seemed to worry North.

"What are those?" Jack asked.

"They are enemies," he said. He pointed to a single black dot. "And that's Pitch."

"What!?" Bunnymund exclaimed, racing to a window. "Crikey, there are a lot of them."

"What are we going to do?" Tooth cried. "We barely won against Pitch the first time!"

"We need back up," Jack said.

"No, absolutely not," North said immediately.

"Why not?" he asked.

"We can't just go begging for help! We can handle this!" North said. Jack could see that the big mans pride was going to be an issue.

Again.

"Does anyone know where the holidays are now?" Jack asked, turning to the others.

"Nope," Bunnymund said, still observing the mass of shadows forming outside. Sandy also shook his head.

"I do," Tooth said, giving Jack hope.

"Go and ask for their help. Tell them it's urgent," Jack ordered.

"How is she going to get passed them?" Bunnymund asked. Sandy waved his hands wildly.

"Can you help her get by the enemies?" Jack asked. Sandy nodded eagerly and beckoned to Tooth.

"No," North said angrily. "No one is leaving. This fortress is impenetrable."

"Except to Pitch, who can stroll into here whenever he wants," Jack pointed out. "And that Grim guy, who can _freaking teleport_."

"I said we are not in need of help," North argued.

"Too bad," Jack said angrily. "I think we need help, and so does everyone else. It doesn't matter that you're our leader. When it comes to our own survival, we can take charge if we think you're doing poorly." North looked at him angrily.

"Fine. Send for them," North said, gritting his teeth and swallowing his pride. Jack nodded, and Tooth and Sandy shot off. From his place by the window, Bunnymund could see Sandy putting a protective sand barrier around Tooth before shooting her through the masses and away from danger.

He just hoped she would get there in time.

* * *

**Chapter done!**

**Yay!**

**I hope you liked it.**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit.**


	20. Chapter 20

**New Chapter!**

**Yay!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Tooth felt her wings begin to burn as she shot through the air. She was only a few minutes away from Eve's workshop. Through her exhaustion, Tooth felt a nagging feeling arise again. She had been trying to push it down as she flew through the skies, but now that she was close to her destination, it came back with a vengeance. It was a mixture of fear and doubt.

She knew how the holidays must have felt when the Guardians rejected them. Now, just a day after, she was fleeing to them to beg for their help. _This isn't going to go well,_ Tooth thought as the doubt pierced into her very soul. _What if they don't help?_ She already knew the answer to that.

If they didn't get help, then all of the Guardians, her friends, would be dead.

And, to make matters worse, the holidays had every reason to say no.

With enormous effort, Tooth pushed aside her doubts. She could see the enormous candy workshop just a mile ahead. She also felt her adrenaline rush vanish, making her wings feel like lead. She forced herself closer and closer to the workshop as exhaustion washed over her, causing her to plummet. She smashed straight through a window and into the dining room of the workshop, getting herself covered in cuts from the shattered glass. She was lying on a mint shaped table, with holidays sitting all around it.

"Toothiana?" April said in utter confused.

"Why have you come here?" Eira asked.

"It's Pitch," Tooth muttered, beginning to cough violently. "He's attacking North's workshop. We're outnumbered." She looked up seeing the holidays glance at one another doubtfully. "We need your help." They were still looking around, whispering to one another.

"We will help you, or some of us will," Jess said with conviction.

"Tell us everything," Ling said after a pause.

...

"Why should we be helping them?" Skywalker asked angrily as he strapped his sheath to his belt. He slid his glowing blue sword into it with a quiet hiss. "And don't even try to say that they'd do the same for us."

"This isn't for them," Jess said.

"What do you mean?" Shay asked angrily as she tucked her chain into her yellow dress.

"We're only helping them because of what they do, not because of who they are," Juliet said absently. She was holding her deck of cards, shuffling through them with lightning speed, flipping one over occasionally.

"Besides, if they die, one of us will have to take over," Val said, wrinkling her nose. "I don't want to deal with that." She began to pull on her bow string experimentally, testing the string.

Melodia and Marina walked into the room, looking nervous. Melodia was strumming absently on her guitar while Marina kpt playing with her hands.

"You need to chill out," Carter said, noticing his friend's unease. When she wouldn't stop, he grabbed her hands. "It'll be fine. We'll get rid of them, either for now or forever. It's nothing to worry about."

"Yeah, okay," Marina said, a blush creeping across her face. Carter seemed to notice the awkwardness, and quickly let go of her hands. Marshall walked in, smelling strongly of smoke. He had presumably just come from his steed.

"We're getting ready to go," Marshall said quietly. Zack heard him and nodded, snapping his fingers and causing fireworks to spark between them. He was warming up for a fight. Neoelle and Stella walked in, looking even more nervous than Marina and Melodia had.

"Here, I know what can help," Melodia said. She played around with the tuning on the guitar a bit before strumming an easy, repetitive tune. At once, the nervousness evaporated like steam.

"Thanks," Shay said. "You know how to play." Melodia responded with a flirty style.

"Guys, we need to move into the other room," Eira said as she and Aurora led everyone out. Sparks was already in the other room, her lightning staff in her hands. Ling and Eric were also there, talking quietly with Tooth, who was now recovered. Nyx was talking with Cimag, both girls looking relaxed.

"Alright, has everyone gathered their supplies?" Happy asked as the rest of the holidays filed into the room.

"I think so," Carter said, answering for the group.

"Good. Now, based on Tooth's information, we have from five to ten enemies. We already know who two of them are, Pitch and Grim, but we need more information. Cha has sent a message to the Guardians, so they know back up is coming, but they won't be able to reply. So, we need some people to teleport in and out safely. We just need to know what we're up against," Happy said, tapping her arms with a repetitive pinging noise.

"So, that'd be me, right?" Val asked.

"And me?" Aurora asked.

"And us?" Stella asked, gesturing to herself and Sparks.

"Yes," Eira said. She was not happy with the idea of sending Stella out there, especially after the trauma that she had experienced with the Reaper, but there wasn't much of another option. She didn't want to send Aurora out anymore than Stella. Both girls were like sisters to her. "And possibly Juliet, if she left a card there."

"I didn't," Juliet said with a shake of her head. "It never occurred to me."

"That's fine," Eira said. She turned to Marina, Melodia, and Marshall. "I know that you all can teleport to some extent, right?"

"Well, yeah," Marina said, biting her lip.

"But only in natural settings where our season is at the time. We're currently in another dimension, so we can't teleport," Melodia said.

"We're sorry," Marshall finished up with a frown.

"It's okay," Happy said. "We don't too many."

"Alright," Val said, looking determined. "I'll teleport into the workshop and check on the Guardians. Aurora will go on the outside and scout around."

"We'll go outside, too," Sparks said. "Stella will listen for trouble while I look."

"That sounds like a good plan," Stella said. "And we leave in 3...2...1!" Sparks vanished in a flash of lightning. Val clicked her heels together, Dorothy style, and disappeared. Aurora was covered in a shower of stars before she, too, was gone. Stella vanished in a poof of smoke, leaving the people who had been next to her with burning eyes and a cough in their throat.

"Okay, while their gone, let's hear the rest of the plan," Zack prompted.

"Alright. The plan is that we go in waves, in a way. We'll all leave at once, but arrive at different times. You each will be assigned to a group based on flight speeds," Happy explained. "The three fastest are in the first group. You should arrive first. That would be Eve, Shay, Jess and Melodia. You will also cause a distraction. Just be as obnoxious as possible when you approach."

"Sweet!" Melodia said, high-fiving her partners. "Let's go kick some ass, and then read a good lemon!"

"The second group consists of Skywalker and Nyx. You two have feathered wings, so you'll be able to approach silently. This could help bring down one or more of the enemy," Happy said. "Next group will be Marina, Carter, Zack, Eric and April. You all are together solely because you all go at the exact same speed. Eric may end up ahead of you all, though."

"I will head into the battle with great haste," Eric said with conviction. His body began to change in shape, something that everyone else was surprisingly used to. He began his slow transformation into an enormous Chinese dragon. He grew deep crimson scale that were etched with red. His black hair became a mane, his pearl earring remaining on his ear as they transforming into a more angular shape. Golden horns appeared on his head, and his arms and legs became reptilian. Polished white claws and fangs were the last to appear.

"Okay then," Happy said as the room became noticeably more cramped with the presence of the dragon. "Last group is Lee, Eira, and Goss. You guys are the slowest, no offence."

"None taken," Eira said, still sounding slightly offended.

"What about me?" Marshall asked. Happy looked at him with a smile.

"I need you and Cha to stay here. We don't know why the enemy is attacking North's workshop. They might end up coming here. We'd need you guys to defend it," she said.

"You're just saying that," Marshall said dejectedly as he walked over to Cha and Lee to tell them what was happening. Cha didn't appear to be very happy but, when she turned away, Lee's face showed signs of relief. He really didn't want Cha to be in any danger.

"Alright. I'll be somewhere amongst you all," Happy said. "Does everyone know who their buddies are?" Everyone nodded.

"Now, all we have to do is wait for the four girls to get back," Eira said. "That shouldn't take very long, right?" As she said that, Val reappeared in the room.

"There are nine main enemies, and thousands of minions," she said, putting her hands on her knees. Her bow was snapped and her quiver empty.

"Where are the others?" Eira asked immediately.

"I don't know. I was inside. The letter reached the Guardians, but they don't know anything about our enemies that we don't know ourselves. They're all okay for now," Val reported.

"Oh, thank goodness," Tooth said, breathing a sigh of relief. A crash of lightning sounded, and Sparks appeared next to them.

"There you are!" Nyx exclaimed when she saw her friend. "What did you..." She trailed off as Sparks collapsed to the ground.

"They're really strong," Sparks grunted from the ground. Nyx rushed to her side and rolled her over. She gasped when she saw the gaping slash through that cut straight through, two inches above her hip.

"Where are Stella and Aurora?" Eira asked, slightly panicked.

Sparks shook her head. "I didn't see them."

"We need to leave now," Happy said, sensing that they were up against something terrible.

"I'm coming with," Val said immediately. She had refilled her quiver and gotten another silver bow.

"I am too," Tooth said, standing up.

"Alright. Marshall and Cha, you need to give Sparks medical treatment. You know how, right?" Eira asked.

"Yes ma'am," Marshall muttered. Cha merely nodded.

"Good. Let's move out now," Happy said. And with that, the holidays poured out of the workshop and flew towards the fight. As they divided into their separate groups, Happy couldn't help but feel that she was forgetting to do something. Something important.

Something like leaving the infant New Years at the workshop, away from the battle, to insure that he remained safe.

But the small child remained strapped to his caretakers back, going into a battle that many would not return from.

* * *

**Chapter done!**

**Yay!**

**And now the carnage will begin.**

**I've already decided who dies, so no one can save their character now.**

**That sounds really morbid.**

**Oh well.**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit**


	21. Chapter 21

**New Chapter!**

**Yay!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

North cursed as he swiped his swords at another Nightmare. Sure, they were easy to defeat, but there were _thousands_ of them, and Pitch kept on creating more and more. Bunnymund, Jack, and North were all inside the workshop, surrounded by the creatures. Sandy was zooming around outside, shooting sand at anything that moved.

But North was still confused.

Sure, there were thousands of enemies that Pitch was creating for them to fight, but they weren't difficult to defeat, or specifically dangerous in any way. They were like busy work. North had seen the other enemies, each of them looking formidable in their own right, but none of them were attacking.

North had already mentioned this to the other Guardians, and to the Valentine's Day girl, Val. North had also seen a girl with long, black hair fly past one of the windows, carrying a staff with a sparking, zig-zag shaped blade. She had vanished in a literal flash of lightning.

"What do you think their plan is?" Bunnymund asked, taking North out of his thoughts and back to the battle at hand.

"I'm not sure," North said. "They don't have any motive that we know of, except Pitch, who hates us for defeating him. It is as if they are trying to keep us right here."

"And why didn't they catch Tooth?" Jack asked. "I mean, I know that Sandy is good, but any of our enemies could have caught her. That Grim guy can even teleport."

"I don't know," North said as he sliced another Nightmare in half. He turned to attack another, only to discover that there were no more. They had all retreated to the outside.

"Now what are they doing?" Jack asked as the trio ran to the window. They heard a whistling noise and, upon staring at the horizon, they discovered the source. Four shapes were coming in fast, at nearly super-sonic speed. One was riding a broomstick. As she approached a Nightmare, she spun off of it, holding it like a baseball bat, and slammed it into the shadowy creature before swinging back onto the broom.

"Nice one, Eve!" Another girl shouted. This one was riding a rainbow mop, and was holding what appeared to be a book. "Take this, you shady bastards!" she shouted, swinging the book down on the creatures heads. A girl with rainbow hair, who was riding a didgeridoo, went through the same motion as the girl on the broom had, except she put the instrument to her mouth and began to play some sort of song. The sound vibrations made visible waves and destroyed the Nighmares in its path. The last girl was trailing a rainbow of colors.

"Oh great. They brought Nyan Cat," Bunnymund muttered. Upon squinting at the rainbow, he could see that a girl was actually trailing the rainbow, and firing different colors at the Nightmares. Red light became fire balls that launched at the Nightmares. Yellow blinded them and incinerated those that were too close. Purple poisoned them, the black horses dropping as the cloud of violet smoke engulfed them. The girl who had teleported in earlier, Val, was crouching on the rainbow, shooting arrows. An arrow shattered through one of the windows and landed next the Jack's face.

"Argh!" He shouted, jumping back. A playing card was taped to it, with a note that said "Please step back from the card, as four people are going to teleport through it".

"What an odd message," North said, staring at it closely. Then, as the note said, the card began to glow. Surely enough, four people materialized next to it. The first was a girl with platinum blonde hair. She picked up the card and threw it, immediately teleporting next to it. She repeated the motion over and over, teleporting dozens of times in only a few seconds. She was out the window quickly, teleporting along with the card. She went incredibly high and began to throw exploding cards as she fell.

The second person that came through the card was a stocky Asian man with a short pony tail and goatee. He pulled a magnificent bow off his shoulders and began to fire arrows that appeared to be made of light with extreme accuracy, scattering the Nightmares. He took to the sky after the teleporting girl.

The third person had an eyepatch and blonde hair with red in it. She and the fourth girl, who had short, curly hair, did not go out the window.

"We're Neoelle and Cimag," the blonde girl introduced.

"We came here to ask you what else you know," Cimag said, eyeing North's blades uneasily. "And to see if you know where Aurora and Stella are."

"I don't know where your friends are, but I will try to help you find them," Bunnymund grunted. North remained silent, unhappy that the holidays were in his workshop.

"OKay," Cimag said, sharing a look with Neoelle. "Do you know anything else about the enemy's plans?"

"We are beginning to think that all of this is a trick," Jack explained. "That the enemy has some sort of ulterior motive."

"What makes you say that?" Neoelle asked.

"Well, these Nightmares are too easy to defeat. It's like they're just being used as a distraction," Bunnymund said.

Neoelle and Cimag muttered to each other. With a nod, Neoelle unslung her small bow and grabbed an arrow. Cimag scribbled a note down and tied it to the arrow.

"What are you two doing?" North asked.

"Telling my sister what's going on," Neoelle said as she took aim. "I just hope she hears it coming this time." She loosed the arrow, which vanished into the sky.

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

"I've accidentally shot her out of the sky doing this," Neoelle explained. She scrutinized the sky, looking at the battle.

"Hmm," Cimag hummed.

"That's what I was thinking," Neoelle agreed.

"What were you thinking?" Bunnymund asked.

"Well, this battle seems to be going fairly well for us so far," Neoelle said, still observing. Jess was twisting through Nightmares as Val shot them down. Eve had summoned a mob of Jack O'Lanterns, who used their triangular teeth to bite at Nightmares as their little bat wings kept their massive pumpkin bodies up. Shay seemed content bashing Nightmares with her rainbow mop. Melodia was going crazy with her didgeridoo tune, massacring the Nightmares. Juliet teleported at lightning speeds, cards flying through the air. Sandy was still there, defending a third of the workshop with his golden sand. Ling was downing the minions like it was nothing, which it actually was.

"These are only from Pitch," Cimag pointed out. "Where are the eight remaining enemies that we were told of?"

"That's what we were wondering," North said. He pointed at a mountain, about a mile away from the workshop. "That's where about three or four of them are. The rest are at the base of the workshop."

"Why are they down there?" Neoelle asked.

"That, we are unsure of. They are tapping into the generator for the workshop, using the energy to power something. We don't know what," Jack said.

"And we cannot turn it off," North said.

"Fun," Neoelle said. "And here comes some more of our back up." She pointed up, and the three Guardians watched as two figures emerged from the fluffy white clouds. Both had bird-like wings, which folded in, almost to their backs as they fell silently. The boy with white wings was carrying a glowing blue sword, which was used to cut a Nightmare in half. The girl with black wings fell slower than boy. The girl began to spiral, icy flames appearing on the tips of her wings, forming a tornado around her.

"Looks like you have some competition, Jack," Bunnymund said with a grin. Jack let out a huff and took to the skies as well, not wanting to be outdone by a mere _holiday_.

"Looks like we're getting more company," North said as he pointed at the mountain again. Pitch had sent forward large tentacles of black sand, which began to lash out. The holidays still found it easy to dodge and fight.

"At this rate, by the time the others get here, it'll be over," Neoelle said. "But you guys are right. It seems too easy."

"And we still don't know what happened to Aurora and Stella," Cimag pointed out. "I hope they're alright."

...

"We need to go back," Aurora whispered to Stella.

"No, can't you hear the fighting? The counterattack has already begun," Stella said. "Besides, you need to check what the heck is going on around the corner." The two raven haired girls were crouching outside of the workshop. Stella had heard a noise and landed with Aurora, trying to figure out what it was. Now, Stella was urging Aurora to check it out.

"Fine, I'll take a quick look," Aurora said. "But then we are teleporting away from here." She crept through the snow, failing to be quiet due to the crunch of her shoes in the icy ground. It made her cringe and pray that there was nothing around the corner to hear her. She peaked around and saw...

Nothing.

"Hmm," she said, straightening up.

"What is it?" Stella asked as she came up behind Aurora.

"There's nothing here," she said, confused.

"Are you sure?" Stella asked. "I can still hear it. Whatever it is, it should be right in front of us." Aurora felt chills run up her spine as she raised her hand and stepped forward. After a few steps, she felt something cold and metal.

"What is this?" Aurora wondered.

"Hmm, I'm not sure. I'd tell you what it looks like, but I can't, now can I?" Stella said sarcastically.

"I wasn't going to say that," Aurora said. A noise to her right caught her attention. "Stella, was that-?" She was cut off as when she took a crowbar to the face.

"Aurora! What's happening?" Stella asked as she heard the crowbar hit again and again. Something splattered across her face, making Stella freeze. "Aurora?" she asked in a whisper. The only thing she heard were footsteps approaching her. She could have teleported right then, but she was paralyzed with fear.

"Make sure you get that one," a girl's voice said. "We need a living specimen to test the machine on. You just killed the first one."

"I know, sorry," another voice, this time male, said. "I just lost control a little. Won't happen again."

"It better not," the girl said. "After all, if you want that vengeance against Frost so badly, it'd be better to kill him slowly. You have eternity to, after all."

"I guess," the boy said. As the two had talked, the boy had gotten closer and closer to Stella. Now, he was almost within crowbars reach. Stella sensed him getting nearer and forced herself to teleport away, into the workshop.

"Darn it, Tyler," the girl said. "Now Pitch is going to be angry at both of us."

"I don't think so," Tyler said as he walked back over to Aurora, who was still in the snow. "Are you sure that this one is dead?"

"I'm not the ghost whisperer here," the girl said. Tyler rolled his eyes.

"Tianna, I can always grab another holiday. Besides, I think that this one could have teleported, too, had she gotten the chance," Tyler said, kicking Aurora's body with his boot. "Oh well, time to grab another victim."

"Wait," Tianna said. She handed her brother a paper. "Here is the list of holidays, from the largest amount of stored energy to the least." Tyler looked at the list and took out a black pen.

"We just killed one of the ones with a moderate amount of energy," Tyler said.

"No, you're the one who killed her, not me. And don't forget that we scared one away," Tianna said.

"Alright," Tyler said, memorizing the pictures and ranking on the paper. "I think that we just need a moderate amount of stored energy for the test, eh? Should be easy." He sat down and summoned several ghosts. One vanished, heading to Pitch to give him an update. The others were going to bait and capture another holiday.

_This is pretty easy,_ Tyler thought with a smirk.

...

Neoelle and Cimag spun around as a sharp pop sounded behind them. Stella emerged from a cloud of smoke, shaking. There were trails of blood across her face, which were being smudged due to the tears running down her face.

"Oh my god, Stella! What happened to you?" Neoelle asked, seeing the blood and tears on her friends face. She didn't appear to be hurt in anyway, though.

"Whose blood is this?" Cimag asked.

"I-It's Auroras," Stella sobbed. "I heard something on the other side of the workshop, so we went to check it out."

"Where is Aurora now?" Bunnymund asked. Stella shook her head.

"It's my fault," Stella whispered. "We found this machine on the other side, and I told her to check around the corner, and she said that she couldn't see anything..."

"Oh, Stella," was all Neoelle could say as she wrapped her friend in a hug.

"She found something, and she sounded really surprised about it," Stella said with a shuddering breath. "Then she started to ask something, and I heard something hit her." Tears began to come down Stella's face even faster. Neoelle stared at her friend. "They wouldn't stop hitting her. There was a girl, and she mention something about the boys revenge against Jack." Bunnymund and North shared looks of concern.

"Did she say anything else?" Bunnymund asked.

"Yeah, something about killing a specimen for their machine," Stella said. She began to cry again and Neoelle hugged her tighter.

"It's okay, Stella. Let's just stay in here," Neoelle said. Stella mutely nodded.

Bunnymund and North were sharing alarmed looks, which Cimag noticed.

"What is it?" she whispered to them.

"I think that we know what the ulterior motive is," Bunnymund muttered. Cimag raised an eyebrow, silently urging him to continue.

"They aren't attacking to get back at us," North said. "They are after you all. The holidays."

"What?" Cimag whisper-shouted.

"This is just a ploy. They are trying to capture some or all of the holidays," Bunnymund whispered.

"Why they'd want to catch some puny creatures like you is beyond me, though," North muttered, earning an angry look from Cimag.

"How many of the holidays are coming?" Bunnymund asked.

"Everyone," Cimag said. "Except for three. Sparks was injured, and Marshall and Cha are taking care of her."

"This is not good," Bunnymund said. "We need to warn everyone. Now." As he said that, the next wave of back up arrived. That meant that all but a few of the holidays had arrived. As this happened, the enemy on the mountain took to the air to meet with the holidays.

"Too late," Cimag whispered as North and Bunnymund cursed and ran out of the room, going for the sleigh. "We're too late."

* * *

**Chapter done!**

**Yay!**

**And I reposted the previous chapter with an extra sentence at the end to make it a little more clear since a few people seemed confused.**

**And, to make this clear now:**

**Eric is good**

**Erik is bad**

**They are two completely different people.**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit.**


	22. Chapter 22

**New Chapter!**

**Yay!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Bogg sat on an icy rock, wiggling with excitement. One of Tyler's ghosts had just arrived, and told them great news: Tianna and Tyler had messed up, and they now needed another specimen! Bogg simply couldn't wait to help out with the fight. Next to him was Strig. The tall owl man was silent, waiting for Pitch's signal to attack. The rest of the holidays had just arrived, and Pitch had just taken to the sky to confront them. It was more of a distraction so the rest of Pitch's subordinates could get into position to begin their attack.

Strig could hear the others getting into position. Primal Beast was on a ridge, four hundred meters from where Strig was standing. Difunto was circling almost silently over head, hidden in the dark clouds. Pere was still on the mountain where Pitch had been, standing there casually. Tianna and Tyler were still hidden away at the base of the workshop. Several ghosts, presumably under Tyler's command, were drifting around, unseen. Grim was on top of the workshop. Strig could hear the boy's breathing quicken as he felt adrenaline course through his veins at the prospect of finally killing Happy.

Strig stiffened when he heard the sound of multiple bodies breathing near him, but calmed when he realized that it was North's sleigh, which rocketed past too quickly for any of the passengers to notice them. He could hear the rabbit's complaints about the sleigh, and the fat man's cry, urging the reindeer onwards to confront the enemy.

"Are you ready to go, Bogg?" Strig asked.

"I was born ready!" the younger boy practically squealed. Strig was confused by him. He acted like a child, but he was clearly much older than that.

"Let us wait for the signal then," Strig said, shifting in slight anticipation. He, like Bogg, found great joy in seeing the sheer terror in the eyes of others.

...

The workshop exploded. Jack was gone.

That's all that was going through North's head, as he sat in the Tooth Palace, even though it was hours after the battle.

The workshop exploded. It was gone. And so was Jack.

All that he had worked for was gone. His life's work, the very thing that had driven his own wife away, was now gone.

So was the boy, so young and carefree, who he had seen as a son.

Tooth, who had finally reunited with the other Guardians, could now see why North didn't want to get involved with the holidays. It was for self-preservation. She also saw why the holidays came to them in the first place. They were horribly outgunned, as one would say, despite having a much larger group than the enemies.

Happy was looking at them, just having returned from checking on the surviving holidays.

"Don't you see why we came for your help?" she asked tearfully, still in shock by the course of events.

"Don't you see why I wanted to stay out of it?" North retorted angrily, his temper snapping in a flash. "That was my life's work, gone! What am I going to do for Christmas? My workshop is just a pile of rubble!"

"That rubble is the tomb of four girls who just wanted to exist peacefully," Happy said, her eyes shining. She stormed away from North and Tooth, back to the remaining holidays.

She sat down on the ledge with a heavy sign, her arms burning from fresh cuts and bruises. She closed her eyes, thinking of all of her friends.

_It was like she was back in the cold sky above North's workshop. Everything had been going so well, untill it didn't._

_They had the upper hand against North, each group of holidays easily beating their opponents. Then, the enemy pulled a switch and began dominating the battle._

_Happy remembered watching as Zack and April fell, together, from a brutal attack from Bogg, who then turned and chased down Lee. A monstrous creature, known as Primal Beast, reared up, knocking Eira's stag from the sky and it's rider with it. Eve was pulled down by several ghosts, whisked away to an unseen fate. _

_Whips of black sand threw Jess to the ground, Val tumbling after her. Marina and Carter tried to catch them, but were tossed aside like rag dolls._

_Nyx and Skywalker, were grabbed by a wing each and forced into the side of a mountain at near super sonic speeds by Strig, causing a massive rock slide._

_Eric, in his massive dragon form, had flown up against Difunto, the feathered snake. As it turns out, this feathered snake could breath fire, ice, and lightning. Ling had tried to help, but his actions were fruitless in stopping the beast's attack. He fell too, shortly after his friend did._

_Juliet had been intercepted just as she teleported, getting a spike through the chest. Goss's goose was killed beneath him, leaving him to fall to the earth like so many of his friends._

_Grim had gone on a rampage, using his scythe to cut down Melodia, and Shay, before coming after Happy. He would have killed her too, had it not been for an old friend's intervention._

_And poor little New Years. He had been the original target all along. He was forgotten, just like the rest of them, but his cycle of ageing and then reverting back to infancy had been stopped, leaving all the extra energy to pool inside of him. He was going to be used by the enemy as a battery, and it made Happy sick to even think about what they were doing to him now._

_Then, as they thought that it couldn't get any worse, the enemy blew the workshop up as they left, killing the holidays that were inside._

_After the battle was probably worse than the battle itself._

_Carter had found the bodies of April and Zack, wrapped in one another's arms. They had died together. Marina helped him bury the two, still together, in a grave so they could rest together eternally._

_Melodia and Shay found Juliet dying in the snow, whispering her farewells to her friends before passing on to join April and Zack._

_Skywalker managed to dig himself out of the rock slide but, after several hours of searching, no sign of Nyx was found._

_Lee found Eira's stag and then, following a trail of blood through the snow, came across Eira. She had walked over a hundred feet to the base of North's workshop where she died next to Aurora._

_Jess and Val, who had landed in a deep chasm, flew out only to find Goss, who had broken his neck on a rock. His poor goose, which was the cause of his fall, had placed a protective wing over him before joining his owner in death. _

_Eric, who had reverted back to his human form, found Ling, who was barely breathing, and helped him back to the holidays. Eve had been kidnapped, vanishing from everyone's sight._

_Happy was found, bleeding out in the snow, by the same friend who had saved her from Grim. She could still remember the scythe blade as Grim tried to kill her, and the horror and uselessness as New Years was taken from her backpack by her sworn enemy-_

A soft hand on Happy's shoulder brought her out of her thoughts. Standing next to her was probably the most bizarre person in the room. He was a boy with baby blue eyes and grey hair, and a handsome human face. That was all that was human about him. The rest of his body stood at a staggering 6'2 and, though humanoid, was covered in blue feathers. A pair of feathered wings were also folded against his back.

"Hey Moth," Happy said, greeting her mute friend. He was the one that had pulled Grim away from her. He hadn't been able to stop him from taking New Years, though. He motioned for her to get up, helping her to her feet.

"Happy, Jess just returned with Sparks and the others," Melodia said as a crash of lightning sounded behind her. The light faded, revealing Jess, Cha, Marshall, and Sparks. Cha ran over to Lee, throwing her arms around him, visibly shaking. Marshall walked up to Melodia and smiled uncertainly, only to be pulled into a warm embrace by her. Sparks sat down, crying as she realized that her three best friends were dead.

"What's the word?" Sparks asked as she eventually got up, walking over to Happy.

"You don't want to know," Happy said.

"Yes, I do!" Sparks said angrily. "Where are my friends? Where's Neoelle, and Cimag, and Stella? Where's Aurora?"

"Sparks, please stop," Melodia said, laying a hand on the angry girl's shoulder, only to be electrocuted.

"No! Happy, you said that we would get back up from the Guardians and everything would be okay!" Sparks said, her voice starting to raise. Happy took a breath, trying to calm down before speaking.

"I'm sorry Sparks, I was wrong-"

"Hell yeah you were! You were completely wrong! They just sat on their asses the entire time!" She yelled, pointing over at the Guardians.

"We lost people too!" Bunnymund shouted immediately.

"No! You lost Jack, who was kidnapped by Pitch! News flash: you didn't have to pull his body from a pit! You didn't watch him die or hear his last words!" Sparks shouted.

"Sparks, calm down," Happy pleaded. "You're scaring everyone."

"You should be dead!" Sparks screamed, turning on Happy again. By now, the room was dead silent as everyone stared at them.

"Hey, you know you don't mean that..." Melodia began to say.

"Yes, she does!" Shay said suddenly. "I have to say that I agree with her."

"What are you guys talking about?" Jess asked. "Happy just did what she thought was right."

"We should have just left the Guardians to die," Shay said. "It would have saved us a lot of trouble."

"No!" Skywalker interjected. "We won't sink to their level!"

"Guys! We can't be fighting!" Happy said.

"You should be dead!" Sparks screamed again. "It was your idea and your belief that we save them! You should have died for that belief!"

"And didn't you say you could have killed Grim a while ago? That would have saved New Years!" Shay shouted.

"Guys, please. We're insulting their memory by arguing like this," Val murmured.

"No, we are insulting their memory by not acting," Happy said suddenly. She looked at the holidays that had gathered around her. "I fully intend on taking revenge and saving New Years and Eve, and any of the others that were taken by Pitch. I cannot do it on my own, so I was hoping that some of you might be of some help."

"If revenge is the name of the game, then I'm in," Skywalker said.

"Me too," Jess agreed.

"And me," Melodia said. Shay nodded. Slowly, they all voiced their agreement, even Sparks.

"What about you all?" Carter asked, turning to the Guardians.

"I'll fight! I want to save Jack!" Tooth exclaimed.

"I'll help out too," Bunnymund said.

"I will not go," North said. "I have lost too much already. I need to rebuild my workshop and start from scratch. It'll be a miracle if there is a Christmas this year."

Sandy raised his hand in agreement and proceeded to fall over. The old man appeared to be exhausted.

"Sandy will stay here with me," North said, noticing this. "He will be of much use to me."

"Alright," Happy said with a nod, looking around. "Now we just need a game plan."

* * *

**Chapter done! **

**Yay!**

**Took forever.**

**Sorry.**

**I have no excuses.**

**Thanks,**

**CatKkit.**


	23. Chapter 23

**New Chapter!**

**Yay!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Far away from the workshop and the holidays and the plans and disasters, two girls were on a countryside. The first was hanging from a tree, just dangling there. Her red eyes were squinting as the wind blew some short strands of hair in her face. Below er sat an older woman with short, dark curls, lounging under the tree. She was reading a book as she sat in the shade, occasionally pulling on a tight black choker necklace.

The woman on the ground looked at the field around her with a sigh. She and her friend had lived a simple, peaceful life, away from the holidays. Some of them visited occasionally, such as Eira, but none of them could convince these two girls to join the holidays in their 'council meetings'. The woman thought that it would be too dangerous. So did her younger companion.

Now, the girl in the tree stopped swinging and the woman on the ground stopped reading. They both looked at the grassy plain that sloped down before them. Something seemed off. Just as the woman was about to open her mouth, a shower of stars expanded outwards from the center of the field. They faded away quickly, showing two small figures. One appeared to be supporting the other, laying her down before vanishing among the taller grass. The woman jumped up and the girl quickly swung down from the tree. They took off towards the small, fallen figure.

The woman got there first, skidding onto the soft earth next to the figure. It was revealed to be a girl with choppy black hair and white, sightless eyes that stared towards nothing. She was awake and trembling, her shoulder and stomach bleeding. She looked like she had just been through an explosion. A few seconds later, the other girl stopped beside the woman, looking around to where the other figure had disappeared to. She then glanced down at the bleeding girl, her eyes widening in surprise.

"Stella?" she asked, confused. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Dopple, can't you see that she is too shaken to talk?" the woman said quietly as she took Stella in her arms. "We can ask her about it later."

"If she's even alive later," Dopple muttered as she followed the woman back up the hill. She paused, looking back towards the tall grass where the other figure had disappeared.

"Come on, Dopple," the woman said as she walked hurriedly past the tree where the two had been just minutes before. Dopple hurried up, scooping up her friend's discarded book as she went. They now hurried down part of the hill, turning sharply to a door.

"Marie, do you think Stella will be alright?" Dopple asked as she quickly opened the door, which covered a tunnel that led into the hillside. Marie hurried in, placing Stella on the large dining room table as she ran into another room to get gauze and disinfectant. Dopple watched on as Marie began to bandage the wounds.

"I think she'll be fine," Marie said eventually. She patted the bandages lightly before picking up Stella again and moving her onto the large sofa. "She'll probably sleep for a while."

"That's good," Dopple said, sitting on a chair opposite of the couch. "She needs some rest. Who knows what caused these injuries?" Marie closed her dark eyes, thinking deeply. Her thoughts were interrupted by sudden gasps.

"Oh my goodness!" Stella gasped as her white eyes flew open. She sat up, flailing her arms around as she tried to figure out where she was.

"Stella!" Dopple shouted, jumping up and grabbing her friend's hand. "It's me, Dopple! You teleported outside of our house!"

"Where's Cimag?" she asked, trying to feel around again while accidentally punching Dopple in the face. For a blind girl, she had pretty good aim.

"OW! Who's Cimag?" Dopple asked.

"She's a friend of mine!" Stella said. "We got blown up in North's workshop, and I tried to grab everyone but I could only grab her and we teleported away! Now, where is she?"

"She disappeared," Marie said, coming over and laying a gentle hand on Stella's shoulder. "Maybe you can tell us exactly what happened to you."

Stella swallowed, twisting her hands in the thick woolen blanket that covered her legs.

"It all started when the Labour Day holiday turned up dead..."

...

"That was fun, don't ya think?" Bogg asked as he swirled around the dark cavern, bumping into cages as he went.

"Calm down, Bogg," Tyler called from below. Bogg merely stuck his tongue out at him.

"Don't pretend you're not happy," Strig said smoothly, his cold eyes wandering the cavern. "After all, you got what you wanted, didn't you?" The answer to that was a big fat 'yes'. In one of the cages hanging from the ceiling was none other than Jack Frost, the very Guardian who was responsible for the death of Tianna. Below him, in two other cages, were New Years and Eve.

Pitch was sitting on his dark throne, eyeing the cages with an emotion somewhat close to happiness. His plan had worked. It had worked perfectly. He had even gotten Eve and Jack as a bonus.

He, unfortunately, had not gotten Happy, and Grim was not happy about that at all. He was sulking in his room, and that scared Pitch just a little. What if the brat decided to turn on him and kill him for not keeping his promise.

But, as usual, Pitch had a back up plan for that. He turned to Difunto, who was sitting off to the side. "Go talk to your weird relative. Tell him to come here, but calm him down first."

Difunto simply nodded and walked away, down one of the winding corridors. He was oddly quiet. Pitch just assumed he was reliving the glory of his kills.

...

Pitch was half right. Difunto was reliving his kills, but in horror, not glory. As he walked, he remembered the terrified faces of his victims.

He slammed into someone suddenly, sending both of them sprawling onto the ground. He jumped up and yanked the other person to their feet.

"Sorry about that, Primal Beast," Difunto said, recognizing his friend.

"I was just looking for you...," he trailed off, looking around. "Can I talk to you later, Difunto? You seem sort of busy right now."

"Yeah, sure," Difunto said, a little confused as Primal Beast walked away.

_What was that all about?_ Difunto wondered as he continued down the hall to Grim's room. It was completely dark inside, so Difunto flipped the light switch. Nothing happened. He tried again. Still no light. He let out a loud sigh, opening the door wide to let more light into the room. He could just barely see Grim sitting in the corner, playing with what appeared to be a golden chain.

"Hey Grim," he said, feeling a little nervous.

"Hey Difunto. What's up?" Grim asked, his voice sounding a little...odd.

"Nothing much. How are you doing?" Difunto asked as he edged into the room.

"I'm fine, kid," Grim said in the same voice. "What are you doing here?"

"Pitch wants to talk to you about something," Difunto said carefully.

"And why does that sneaking bastard want to talk to me?" Grim snarled, putting the gold chain away.

"He has some sort of back up plan," Difunto said, "or an extension or something. Don't ask me. I'm just being the messenger today."

"Alright. I'll head there now," Grim said, ghosting out of his room and down the hall. Difunto caught a glance of his cousin's face, and he did not look happy at all.

Difunto moved to follow him, only to have his name called softly. It was Primal Beast again, peeking out from behind a door. He beckoned to Difunto quickly.

"Come here!" he whispered, beckoning more urgently now.

"Alright! Fine!" Difunto said, walking quickly into the room while Primal Beast slammed the door shut. "What's up, Primal Beast?"

"I want to leave," he said, straight up. Difunto gave him an odd look.

"Then open the door and walk out," Difunto said.

"No. I want to leave this place," Primal Beast said, looking around. "I used to be a good person before Pitch intimidated me to joining him. I just want to go back to being the nicer version of me."

"Why are you telling me this?" Difunto asked. "What's stopping me from reporting you to Pitch?"

"I know you feel the same way," Primal Beast said brashly. "You're too afraid to admit it because you're scared of what Pere might say." Difunto stared at him, for once at a loss for words. "Please. I don't want to be totally alone. You are my friend and I don't want to abandon you here."

"But...," Difunto trailed off.

"Please," Primal Beast said again. "I can't get out of here myself. I need someone to fly me out. You are the only one who would ever consider doing that for me."

"I can't just leave," Difunto said, finally finding his voice again.

"Would you rather have more blood on your hands?" Primal Beast asked. He yanked Difunto's bone sword out of its sheath. It was stained slightly pink from the blood from the earlier battle.

"I didn't kill anyone!" Difunto shouted, yanking it back.

"I did though!" Primal Beast yelled. "I killed someone who was probably wonderful and beautiful! She was probably loved by someone! She was probably someone's caretaker or best friend, and I killed her! I even killed her deer! Do you know how horrible I feel about that?"

"How is that my problem?" Difunto asked coldly, sheathing his sword.

"Your cousin is on a personal vendetta against a perfectly nice girl. He also kidnapped a small child from her!" Primal Beast shouted. "And your boyfriend killed three people and a goose! A goose!"

"So? Maybe I'm okay with that," Difunto argued. Primal Beast gave him a look and laughed.

"You may be the holiday for the Day of the Dead," Primal Beast said, "but you are still against taking the life of another. You've had countless opportunities, but you never do it."

"Why should I leave?" Difunto asked.

"We can undo what we've done," Primal Beast said. "In that other room, in that cavern is three innocent people who don't want to die."

"What are we going to do, free them?" Difunto said with laugh and a shake of his head. "Not if you want us to be killed on the spot."

"No. We can escape and get the holidays. They might help us is we help them," Primal Beast said.

"Now I know you're being crazy," Difunto said. "That would never work."

"Please! I know that you just want nature to be treated right! There are plenty of holidays that feel the same way! They will help you!" Primal Beast said. He didn't show it, but he was getting desperate. "Please. You can regain all you have lost." Difunto stood there, trying to find some sort of argument. He found one final one.

"What about Pere?" he asked.

"That will be your choice," Primal Beast said. "He is evil, to be honest. Totally evil. He will kill anyone and anything. I wouldn't be surprised if he took out Pitch."

"And how would that be a bad thing?" Difunto asked.

"He would disrupt the balance," Primal Beast said. "One cannot feel safe without first experiencing fear. Without him, the Guardians will fall, and then Pere will rise up and destroy everything, even nature."

"If I asked him not to...," Difunto trailed off.

"He wouldn't listen," Primal Beast said. "It's your choice. I'm begging you, though. Please, come with me and help me save those innocent people!"

"Just give me a second to think!" Difunto shouted.

"We don't have a second!" Primal Beast shouted back."I sabotaged the energy extractor!"

"What?! Why?!" Difunto asked, alarmed.

"That's not important!" Primal Beast snapped. "Pitch is going to find out at any second and then he'll kill me. We have to go now!" A sudden loud shout sounded from far away in the cavern. Primal Beast looked at Difunto, his eyes wide.

"Please help me. I don't want to die."

* * *

**Chapter done!**

**Yay!**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit.**


	24. Chapter 24

**New Chapter!**

**Yay!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Stella could feel herself being watched carefully by Marie and Dopple. She had only met the two girls a few times before, but they were the ones who popped into her head when the building exploded. That's what made her teleport to the field. She could sense the two girls silently judging her story. She admitted that it sounded a little extreme, but hopefully these two girls would believe her.

"I want to say that you are telling the truth," Marie said quietly, "but I am unsure what we are supposed to do about it."

"Yeah," Dopple said, nodding her head. "We don't fight as much as we used to."

"We could," Marie said, eyeing her tessin fighting fans that were hanging on the wall. She shook her head. "We'll take you back to your friends and then see how the situation is there. We'll help if we are needed."

"You will be needed," Stella said with confidence. "I don't know how the battle turned out, but I don't think that it was any good."

"And, about your friend who came here," Dopple said, "Cimag, was it? She seemed alright when we saw her. If things are as bad as you say then we can't go after her. We don't know where she is, so it'd be almost like a wild goose chase."

"Alright," Stella nodded sadly. She turned her white eyes towards the two girls. "Can we go now? Eira must be worried about me."

"In a few seconds," Marie said. She went up to the wall and took down her fans. "Dopple, go feed that accursed duck of yours."

"Fine," Dopple said, hurrying from the room. Stella could hear her shouting something along the lines of, 'Here, Sir Quack! Come here, boy!'.

"A duck?" Stella asked questioningly as Dopple returned.

"Yeah. He's a weird dude, but so cute and feathery," Dopple said. "I put him away in his pen."

"Good," Marie said, cutting their bandy off. "Stella, do you think that you can teleport us back to the workshop?"

"No," Stella said. "It's really far from here. I only made because I was desperate, and because I stole energy from the explosion. I don't think I'll be able to do that again."

"That's fine," Marie said with a smile. "Come on outside. We'll take one of my tunnels."

"Tunnels?" Stella asked as she stepped outside. "Like the ones that Bunnymund uses?"

"He stole them from me!" Marie snapped, very much out of character.

"Okay! Cool!" Stella said, trying to avoid being murdered by the suddenly offended girl.

"Let's go," Marie muttered. Dopple helped Stella outside, giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"We have issues with the Easter Guardian. Marie more than me," Dopple whispered.

"Why?" Stella asked, but was shushed by Dopple.

"Dopple, please summon your steed," Marie said. Dopple nodded and whistled loudly. Overhead, Stella could hear the sound of massive wings flapping before some sort of massive beast landed ten feet in front of them. She could hear the massive creature as it shuffled on the long grass, flattening the proud stalks.

"What is it?" Stella asked, moving forward with her hands out in front of her. She was met with the flank of the beast. She could feel it's muscles strain as it turned its head to look at her. It's whiskered face brushed against hers as it investigated her.

"It's my giant flying groundhog, of course," Dopple said as if it should be obvious.

"Alright then," Stella muttered.

"Yeah. His name is Frank," Dopple said with a sigh. She grabbed Stella's arm and began to guide her up the groundhog until she was seated on it's broad back.

"Why are we riding on Frank?" Stella asked as she gripped fistfuls of the creature's fur.

"So we don't get hurt in the tunnels. You'll get all bruised and scraped up if you just slide through there all willy-nilly," Dopple said as she got on, sitting next to Stella. "Alright, Marie. We are ready to go."

"Good," Marie said with a nod. She tapped her foot on the ground, opening an enormous hole. She disappeared down the tunnel and, with an ear-splitting battle cry, the groundhog followed her. Stella, of course, couldn't see where they were going, but she felt her stomach clench as they rounded tight turns and dived down drops.

"I think I might be sick," Stella groaned, leaning over. Dopple sighed and rubbed her back. The groundhog was not for everyone.

...

Skywalker was sitting sideways in a chair, tapping softly. He was so bored. Several of the other holidays were sitting near him, but they weren't bored. Oh no, they were sitting around tables, looking closely at blueprints and sheets and all sorts of plans to invade Pitch's cavern. Even Jess was helping. Heck, even Ebony the telepathic German tiger was helping.

Skywalker would help if he didn't already know how little a plan would help them. For one thing, the blueprints of the cave were far too old. They were from the time when Jack had gone on a little "visit" to the cavern. By now, with the addition of Pitch's colleagues, the caverns probably changed drastically, with all sorts of new rooms and traps. Another problem was that they had too little information on their opponents, and what their opponents wanted. He had already told Jess all of this, though, and she had told everyone else.

They had accepted his take on the situation and took it in stride. Now, they were just trying to familiarize themselves with their enemy, or at least all that was currently known about them. They also worked on advantages and disadvantages, both of each other and the enemy. They had to make sure that they covered each other's backs.

They were also making teams designed to be able to take out each target, as well as having a specialized target in mind. Except for Happy, of course. Right now, it didn't matter what she said or did. She was going to tear Grim apart or die trying. North would probably be murdering Pitch too, especially since he took poor Jack away. And no one could forget about Eve. Who knew what those three were going through. Skywalker let out a quiet sigh.

"Why the long face?" Jess said as she sat in the chair next to him.

"Just thinking," Skywalker said, leaning his head back so he could see her.

"About this?" Jess asked, nodding her head over to the buzzing groups.

"Yeah," Skywalker said with a frown. "What makes me mad is that the Guardians are only helping because Jack was kidnapped. Not because our friends are dead, not because Eve and New Years were taken. Just for Jack. And I'm pretty sure that North is only worked up because his workshop blew up."

"But they are helping," Jess pointed out. "That is what we wanted from the start, remember?"

"I guess," Skywalker said, sounding a little doubtful. Jess picked up on it in a flash.

"What's wrong?" Jess asked. "Isn't that what you want?"

"I just don't see why you and I should have to risk our lives for it. We have more than enough people to take care of it now. We could leave," Skywalker said, with slightly more conviction then Jess was comfortable with. Before she could ask what it meant, something very unexpected happened:

A giant groundhog burst forth, carrying two strangers and Stella, out of the floor where the Guardians were.

"What the heck?" Tooth yelped as she fluttered up next to the groundhog. One of the strangers, a woman with dark curly hair, slid off the groundhog and promptly slapped Bunnymund in the face. She then turned and walked away. The other girl copied the woman and followed her.

"Damn groundhog," Bunnymund muttered, rubbing his face and eyeing the giant beast with distinct unease.

"Stella!" Sparks screamed as she tackled her poor friend off of the groundhog. "We thought you were dead!"

"I'm not though!" Stella said, sounding very happy. "And Cimag is alive too! She just got scared and ran away. Where is Eira?" At that question, everyone froze.

"Stella, let's go over here and talk a little," Sparks said gently, pulling her confused friend away. Several of the holidays watched them go sadly, knowing that Sparks was going to break the news about Eira's death.

"Who are you?" Happy asked, eventually turning away from where the girls had disappeared.

"I'm Dopple, and this is Marie," Dopple said, smiling and waving to some of the holidays that recognized her.

"We control the two aspects of Groundhog's Day," Marie added.

"Are you here to help us?" Jess asked hopefully.

"We came to take Stella home, and then get a read on the entire situation," Marie said quietly. "Then, we will make a decision."

"Take a seat then," Skywalker said as he and all the other holidays and Guardians sat around a large table. "We have a lot to tell you, and not a lot of time."

...

"Please help me! I don't want to die!"

Primal Beast's words still echoed in Difunto's mind, even though it was hours since he said them. And, it was hours since he had decided to help his friend. He could remember their escape with ease.

_"They're coming" Primal Beast shouted. Difunto nodded, his mind suddenly set. He was already thinking of the best route out of the cavern._

_"Come on!" Difunto grabbed Primal Beast's arm and dragged him from the room. Once they got into the corridor, they began running towards Tianna's room. There was usually no one down that part of the corridor, save Tyler and Tianna herself, and Tianna was with her brother with the energy extractor, probably trying to figure out what had happened to it._

_Difunto came skidding to a stop when he saw someone blocking his path. It was Pere. He was standing there, arms spread out with no intention of letting them pass._

_"Difunto!" Pere shouted to his boyfriend. "What have you done?" Difunto just looked at him with pain in his eyes._

_"Let us pass, Pere," he demanded._

_"No! He sabotaged the machine!" Pere shouted, pointing at Primal Beast._

_"I know!" Difunto shouted._

_"Then what are you doing?" Pere screamed. _

_"Helping him, and hopefully helping myself!" Difunto said. "We're leaving."_

_"What? What about the plan?" Pere asked angrily. "What about me?"_

_"Come with us," Difunto said, taking slow steps towards Pere. "It could just be us, going out and seeing the world."_

_"No. I'm not a traitor!" Pere sneered, standing his ground. "When Pitch takes over, he will remember when I stayed and helped him, and when you abandoned him."_

_"Are you coming or not?" Difunto asked, now only a few feet from Pere. Primal Beast was behind him, looking incredibly nervous._

_"No, I am not coming," Pere said._

_"Fine," Difunto said sadly. "I'm really sorry about this." Before Pere or Primal Beast could ask what was happening, Difunto punched Pere square in the nose, knocking him unconscious. _

_"Well then. That was surprising," Primal Beast said as he moved around Pere's form._

_"Not really," Difunto muttered. "I wish he would come with us."_

_"We could kidnap him," Primal Beast pointed out._

_"No, that's be wrong," Difunto said. He propped Pere up against the wall, giving him a gentle kiss before getting up again. "Let's go." He led Primal Beast down the remainder of the corridor, knocking down the door into Tianna's room. Apparently, he had been wrong when he assumed that Tianna was with the machine, because she was in her room and almost got hit by the door when it was kicked off it's hinges._

_"What the heck?" she shouted, jumping back from the two intruders. "Are you guys crazy?"_

_"The opening, now," Difunto ordered, not waiting to see it Primal Beast was following him. He tranformed into his giant snake form and launched himself out the window, his rainbow wings flapping against the harsh sea winds. Primal Beast burst forth after him, landing on his back as they flew quickly off above the ocean. They could hear confused and angry shouting coming from the opening in the cliff face, but they ignored it._

_They were free._

Right now, though, to Difunto, he didn't feel very free. He had lost the love of his life and the closest thing that he had ever had to a father.

At least now, he might be able to stop any carnage that might occur from the upcoming battle. After this short rest, they decided to head towards the workshop of the Halloween spirit, hopefully to make peace with them.

Hopefully, to save them.

* * *

**Chapter done!**

**Yay!**

**Thanks,**

**~CatKkit.**


End file.
